THE

CITY OF THE CALIPHS

A Popular Studp of Caro and Its Environs and the Nile and Ets Antiquities

RY EUSTACE A REYNOLDS-;-BALL t A (Oxd) FRG S

Al IHOR OF MEDIITRRANIAN WINTFR RESORTS’ wa

LONDON r FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1898

Copyriyht, 1897, By Esiis AND LavuRIAT

Colonial Pres:

Electrotyped aad Printed by C H Simonds & Ca. Boston Mass, U S.A

“He who kath not seen Cairo kath not seen the world: its soil ss gold; 1ts Nile is a wonder; tts women are like the black- syed yirgins of Paradise; sts houses are palaces, and sts aty is Soft— its odours surpassing that of aloes-wood, and cheering the heart: and how can Cairo de otherwise when tt ts the Mother of the World? a ‘The Thousand and One Nights.”

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER PAON INTRODUCTION» =» a ni a e PL eee y d I. Earry UNDER TuE PRARAOHG w s a yga II. Tux Empire or taa Prormmikb . . . . B Til. Taz Rue or ran Caurpus. . . . . ® IV. Tur Marxo or Borrt è n 3 65 yV. ALEXANDRIA AND THE Niue Daura » « . 9 VI. Tus Srory or thé Sore Canal , . 105 VII. Camo as a Resort ror Invaips . Wd VIII. Carro IN Its Soctan AsPsor ~ . « 199 IX. Tue Bazaars anp Steext Lirt <. « 4988 X. Tux Mosques. no . . . W XI. Tue Tomas or THE Cairns » « a 149 XU. Toe Nationan Musevw . . . . . 1H XII. Ture AcroroLs or CAO . . » « 106 XIV. Oxp Carko AND THE Coptic Guai «< Wi XV. Some Sıpr-suọws or Carro. . . . W XVI. Tus Pygamıns orf Gaizen < . : |) XVII. Tas City oy tox Saorep Buits . . . DIB XVII. Ter City or raz Sows . '. . .. : 9 XIX. Minon Exounsionws . , .. . .. : W XX. Tuas Niue as a HsaLtu-ntsowr . . . ,. SO XXL ae m Cargo to Tu od $ XXIL a Hoy Gatpe” * Yoa XI, Assouay fe Punts aa ; 1. XXIV, Frox tuk ener to tae Seon Carasa i a XUV. Bapur Mevprovoewar Diinovane. .' 1 $i

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Genera View or Camo. . 5 ys Prenlaplce View IN ALEXANDRIA. s «§ «© « « «© « © GenexAL View or Pont @atp «1 www 108 Tuge Suez CANAL. . s » «6 «© © « « 20

Tas Rovre yo rae Pyaawms . . '. . . He INTRRIÓR oF TuE Mosqgos or Karr Bey . . . . 4

Tuu Tomgs or taa CaL . . . . . 18 Tux Mosque oriart Bry. 2. ww, o w Tue Tomes or THE Mamenuxys. . . . ! 1M PYRAMID, SPHINX, AND Tempce or Guizzzk . oye 202 AGCENDING THE GREAT PYRAMID . . . ele Tug SPHINX > s. «© «© © © «© © i aid Strarus or Rameses IL . . s, wll AF Osetisx or Heuroponig «lw tlw ltl RR View or Evru . se ew 4w STATUE AT THE EWTRANOR OF THE — or Bauasns 110 ae LuxoR . ʻa e y s ‘a s ç a ‘s 908

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a E E et ' GexrsaL View OF DatEt-Bamdtr . . i ‘

QOLONNADES, TENPLE oF Irs ° , é s $ a

THE CITY OF THE’ CALIPHS.

INTRODUCTION.

F a plebiscite were taken among travellars in general as to the dozen most interesting and striking cities of the

globe, it is probable that Cairo would be included in the list. It is inferior in world-wide interest, of course, to Jerusalem or Rome, or even Athens, but it would probably take a higher rank than many historic capitalé. No doubt Cairo, compared with the great capitals of Kurope, is mod- ern, or, at any rate, medimval, and, indeed, historically of little importance; but it cannot be denied that to the average traveller Cairo is not easily dissociated from Egypt, — the cradle of the oldest civilisation and culture in the world. The proximity of the Pyramids and the Sphing have no doubt something to do with this vague and bp neous view, and with the fictitious antiquity í attributed to the City of the Caliphs. The most el tary history, handbook or guide-book will, of course, correct this general impreggion ; but it is not, perhaps, an exaggera- tion to say that ginny gesnal visitors to Egypt begin their sightaesing with a vague, if unformulated, impression that Osiro was once the capital of tho Pharaohs, and the Pyre- mids its cemetery.

The historic and artistic interest of Cairo in, in, cheep, purely mediaval and Saracenic; and, perhaps, vo Banter, city, except Damadous, in the beaten tack of sonrist teavel,

4 gue cy OF THE CALIFRS.

embodies so snany of the typical characteristics of an Oriental city.

Mehemet Ali and Ismail may be considered by the artist nd antiquarian to have done their best to vulgarise, that is, Wurcpeanise, the City of the Mamelukes; but-the rebuild- ing and enlarging under Mehemet, and the hausmannising tendencies of Ismail, have done little more than touch the surface. The native quarter of Oairo still remains a mag- nificent field of study for the intelligent visitor, especially if he ignores the hackneyed and limited programme of the guides and interpreters; and the artist who knows his Oairo will find the Moslem city full of the richest material for his sketch-book. ‘ Every step,” observes Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, “tells a story of the fanrous past. The stout remnant of a fortified wall, a dilapidated mosque, a carved door, a Kufic text, — each has its history, which carries us back to the days when Saladin went forth from the gates of Cairo to meet Richard in the plain of Acre, or when Boybars rode at tho head of his Mamelukes in the charge which trampled upon the Crusaders of Saint Lows. A cloistered conrt recalls the ungodly memory of the prophet af the Druses; a spacious quadrangle, closely filled by picturesque, albeit scowling, groups of students, reminds us of the conquering Caliphs of ’Aly’s heretical line, who, Wisdaining the mere dominion of Roman ‘ Africa,’ carried their triumphant arms into Egypt and Syria, Sicily and Sardinia, whilst their fleets disputed the command of the Mediterranean with the galleys of Moorish Spain.”

Cxiro is full of these picturesque associations connected with the magnificent age of the Mameluke Sultana, but most visitors know little about, them. Probably this is mainly attributable to the fact tat most of the bopks on Raypt mgther ignore its capital; and the age of the Gara cens is @ period as mush overlooked by modera histogena as that of the Ptolomies,

DYTRODUCTION. A

There are, ef course, the standard guitte-bodhu, + & moat skilful condensation of a mass of erudition, —~ ‘bub the compilers find the Upper Nile, with its sities, of auch surpassing interest, that little room can he d for Quire

itself. Besides, guide-books are read of , ot not for pleasure or continuously; and if wealth H dry detail it is difficult sometimes to 4ie8 the waod. fet the

trees.”

There is, however, another aspect besides the sentimen- tal or devotional one, which should not be disregarded ; and in the chapter dealing with the regeneration of Egypt under British influence, I have attempted to shew how modern Egypt strikes the political observed and the man of practical affairs.

Egypt, with ita wealth of antiquities and artistic relics, 18, no doubt, of the highest importance to the tourist and sight-seer. Regarded, however, as a community or modern state, the Egypt of to-day holds a very low rank among semicivilised countries. There is a certain amount of reason in the complaint of some modern historians that Western minds seem to lose all sense of proportion and historic perspective when describing this Land of Paradox, which is, after all, but a tenth-rate territory, with an acreage lees than that of Belgium, and a population hardly more numerous than that of Ireland. These indisputable facts will, perhaps, come as a surprise to the tourist, who takes several weeks to sail along the thousand miles of fë mighty river, —its one and only highway, — from Oaire: the Soudan frontier, One is apt to forget that, ahove Delta, Egypt simply means ù narrow fringe of désert, stretching for a few tniles ap each side of the Nile. no doubt, is true; and visitors are perhaps to spt to “ gan the country looming in a naist of mirage,” and are yuebie to reaist the weird chatm of this unique land, |

At tha same time, ong cannot deny the entivmons bighe,

A THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

national importance of Egypt in spite of its small acreage and population. This importance, no doubt, is to some extent fictitious, and is duc partly to its peculiar geographi- cal position, which makes it the great highway between the Eastern and Western hemispheres, and partly to ita climate, which has converted it into the great winter residence and playground of civilised nations. Besides, magnitude is not, of course, an absolutely reliable test of a country’s greatness. Little states, as we all know, have filled a roost important part in the world’s history, — Athens, Sparta, Venice, Florence, Genoa, tor instance. Then, the Holy Land itself is about the size of Wales, and the area of Attica was no wider than that of Cornwall.

In preparing this book, 1 have consulted many of the standard English and French works which have been re- cently published ; and 1 am especially indebted to the val- uable information to be found in the works of Professor Flinders Petrie, Professor Mahaffy, the late Miss A. B. Edwards, Sir Alfred Milner, and Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole. For the preliminary chapter on Alexandria and the Nile Delta, I have utilised portions of an article on Alexandria which I contributed to “The Picturesque Mediterranean,” published by Cassell & Co., Ltd., London, and my grateful acknowledgments are due to this firm for permission to reproduce these portions.

E. A. R. B.

CHAPTER I. EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHE,

HE history of the City of Cairo, as distinct from that of Egypt, is simple and easily mastered, being con- fined within reasonable limits. Yt does not go back further than medisval times. Unlike the history of Egypt, which 18 concerned mainly with the rise and fall of alien states, Cairo, whether Arabic or Turkish, 1s a wholly Mohamme- dan creation. It is, indeed, more Mohammedan in some respects than any city in the world, just as Rome is more Roman than any other city. Constantinople, of course, is a decidedly hybrid city in comparison, and ita very name recalls an alien civilisation; while ite chief temple, Justin- lan’s great church of St. Sophia, is a Christian building, dedicated to a Christian saint, although the Turks natu- rally try to disguise its heretical origin by calling it Agia Sophia (Holy Wisdom).

The history of Cairo, then, falls naturally into two periods: that of Arab rule when it wag virtually the seat of the Caliphate; and the period of Turkish dominion, from its capture by the Ottoman Turks in 1517 down to the present time. In short, we need consider it under two aspects merely, — first as the capital of the Caliphs, and next as the chief city of a Turkish pachalic.

. The history of Egypt, on the other hand, is that of the

Oldest civilised country in the world, — though as à oom-

munity it is perhaps one of the newest. Tt is an

exaggeration to say that all literature, ancient and modern, 5

6 THE Cy OF THE CALIPHS.

from the of Homer and Aristotle down to the mas- torpiéces of Dante and Shakespeare, is indireetly due to the ancient Egyptian civilisation. Philologists of the high- est authority are agreed that the Pheenician origin of the alphabet cannot be substantiated. Even Tacitus seems to have suspected that this nation had won a spurious renown as the inventors of letters, — tanquam repererint que ac- ceperant. The Egyptian cursive characters to be found in the Prissé papyrus of the eleventh dynasty — “ the oldest book in the world ” — are pronounced by the best philo- logical scholars to be the prototype of the letters after- wards copied by the Greeks from the Phænicians, and thence transmitted to tho Latins.

Though Egypt, as the cradle of the alphabet, may be considered the foster-mother of all literature, yet it must be allowed that the ono thing necdful to history, namely, literary watorial in documentary form, is wanting in the case of Kiry pt. We have nothing but the fossilised history of the monuments. (nly the baldest annals (pace Brugsch Boy) can be compiled from stone inscriptions. Then, as Mr. David Hogarth, in his “ Wanderings of a Scholar in the Levant,” pertinently observes, contemporary documents carved on stone, whether in Greece or in the Nile Valley, have often been accepted far too literally. The enthusi- asm of archeologists has inclined them to regard insuffi- ciently the fact that to lie monumentally to posterity is a falling to which the Pharaohs, prompted by their colossal vanity, were particularly subject.

From the Hyksos invasion down to the conquest of the country by the Ottomans,—a period of nearly five thou- sand years, — Egyptian history is simply that of foreign

ts, and is inseparably bound up with that of alien its conquerors, — Semitic (Hyksos kings), Ethio- ae Assyrian; Persian, Greek, Roman, Saracen, and Turk- ish. A cardinal fact in the history of this remarkable

EGYPT UNDES THE PRARAOHS. T

country is its perpetual subjectiep to foreign influences. Yet, in spite of this, the Egyptians have, during these thousands of years of foreign dominion, preserved their national ‘characteristics, and the same unvarying physioal types. This racial continuity, in spite of all thase adverse circumstances and interminable sucdsemon of alien immi- grations, which might be supposed to modify materially the uniformity of the Egyptian type, w ene of the greatest puzzles in ethnography.

What is known as the prehistoric period ot Egypt can be dismissed in a paragraph. This history is based, of course, on mythical legend, and 18 purely conjectural. It 1s supposed that the country was divided into a number of small, independent states, each with its own tutelary chief; or, according to some writers, these sovereigns were deities and kings in one, and they have been termed god-kings. Tu emphasise the distinction, Menes and the kings of the first dynasty are designated os the first earthly kings of Egypt.

As to the origin of the Egyptians, scholars are di- vided into two schools; for though there are innumer- able theories, if we eliminate the more fanciful ones it will be found that all historians of note have adopted one or other of the two following theories. Those who adopt the Biblical narrative have come to the conclusion that the ancestors of the Egyptians came originally from Asia, and that, in short, the tide of civilisation flowed up the Nile, Philologista, too, who have discovered many points of resemblance in the roote of the ancient Egyptian and’ Semitic languages, have adopted this theory. Ethnogra- phists and anthropologists, however, hold an opposite view, and consider that a study of the customs of the Egyptians, and an examination of their implemdnts and utensils, which are very similat to those of the tribes living on the banks of the Niger and Zatnbesi, sather

B THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

point to an Ethiopian or South African origin; and that civilisation began in the Upper Nile Valley and spread northwards and downwards. It is probable, however, that each of these historical schools may be partly right; and possibly the true explanation is that, whether an Asiatic or African origin be granted, the immigrants found an aboriginal racc settled on the banks of the Nile, whose racial characteristics and distinctive physical types were probably as little modificd by these alien invaders as they have been by their Mohammedan conquerors in the seven- teenth century.

Most modern historians, then, fortified by the opinion of ethnographical authorities, after the scientific examination of the ancient monumental sculptures and drawings, are satisficd that the ancicnt Egyptians differed in all essen- tial racial characteristics from the African negroes, and belonged to a branch of the great Caucasian family.

It would be futile to attempt here, anything but the barest summary of the chief facts of Egyptian history. A very slight thread of narrative may, however, connect the most important historical landmarks under which the lead- ing facts of Egyptian history may be grouped. Without attempting, then, anything of the nature of a scientific chronological précie, a practical and rough-and-ready division, ignoring, of course, the dynasties and Ancient, Middle, and New Empires, and other conventional divi- sions of historians, would be something as follows: —

1. The age of the Pharaohs, which would include the first twenty-six dynasties, down to the first Persian inva- sion under Cambyses.

2. The Empire of the Ptolemies, which includes the ~~ reigns of the dynasty founded by Alexander the

8. The Saracenic era, during which Egypt became once more a centre of arts and sciences, in spite of the interns-

EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHS. ý

cine feuds of the rival Caliphs. This period closes with the conquest by the Ottoman Turks.

4. The Political Renaissance of Egypt under Mehemet Ali.

5. Modern Egypt, when the country of the Pharaohs entcred upon its’ latest phase, after the fall of the Khedive Ismail, as a kind of protegé of the Great Powote, ander the stewardship, first of Great Britain and Franod, pad finally of Great Britain alone.

The division of Egyptian history intv Ancient, Mid“le, an New Empires is as artificial and arbitrary as the popu- lar divisions into dynasties. The Ancicnt Empire begins with Mones, the first really historical king of Egypt. Little is known of this monarch’s achievementa, but he at

‘any rate affords us a sure starting-place for our survey of the early monarchy.

The sources from which we derive our knowledge of these primeval kings are from the monumental inscrip- tions, lists (more or less imperfect or undecipherable) in the Turin papyrus, and the history of the Ptolemaic priest, Manetho. Mena, or Menes, is supposed to have been de- scended from a line of local chiefs at This, near Abydos, the traditional burying-place of Osiris, Coming south, he made Memphis the capital of his new united kingdom. This was the chief centre of the worship of the god P creator of gods and men; and it Was here that the cul€ of the Apis bull (the Serapis of the Greeks) was first in- stituted. The kings of the first three dynasties, with the exception of Mones, have left few records, though certain rep ions on the cliffe at Sinai have been attributed to

the kings of the third dynasty, and the Pyramid of Modum, in the opinion af Doctor Petrie, was built by, Seneferu. These three dynasties cover the period & 6.” 4400 to 3766, according to Brugsch. But Egyption chronology is one ‘of the most disputed depertasentay of

10 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Egyptology, and the dates given are, of course, only ap- proximate.

With the fourth dynasty we come to the familjar names of the great pyramid-builders, Cheops, Chephren, and My- cerinos. It is not till the age of the Theban Pharaohs that we find sovercigns who have left such lasting records of a highly developed civilisation. Cheops and Chephren, in the Egyptian traditions, probably coloured a good deal by the biassed accounts of Herodotus and other Greek his- torians, have been held up to the eaccration of posterity as heartless tyrants and profligate despisers of the gods. Myccrinos’s memory is, however, revered by Herodotus as a just and merciful king. “To him his father’s deeds were displeasing, and he both opened the temples and gave liberty to the people, who were ground down to the last extremity of evil, to return to their own business and sac- rifices; also he gave decision of thoir causes juster than those of all tho other kings.” The actual bones of this king can be scen in the British Museum, so that this pane- gyric has a peculiar interest for English people?

To the fifth dynasty, known as the Elephantine from the place of origin, belongs Unas, whose pyramid-tomb was discovered by Professor Maspero in 1881. The sovereigns of tho sixth dynasty distinguished themselves hy various forcign copquests. To this family belongs the famous Queen Nitokris, the original of the fabled Rhodopis of the Greeks.

Iț is permissible to skip a period of some six hundred yeara, during which four dynasties reigned, whose history is almost entirely lost. So far as we can judge, it was a period of struggle between weak titular sovereigns and

rful feudal chiefs who left the kings a merely nominal reignty, having apparently acquired the control of the civil and military authority.

Egypt during this period was invaded by Libyan and

BGYPT UNDER THE PHABAOHS. t

Ethiopian třibes. With the eleventh dynasty, founded by powerful princes from Thebes, begins the Middlo Empire, with Thebes as its capital. It will be notioed that the seat of government is often shifted during the thirty dynasties which comprise Egyptian history fom Menes to Nectanebo I.

Under the Ancient Empire, Mergpets, de we have seon, was the scat of government, and raay be regarded as the first historic capital of Egypt. This, near Abydos, no doubt can boast of an carlicr history; byt shis was merely’ the cradle of the first Egyptian kings, of whom we have no recurds more authentic than those Smismythical, tradi- tions which contre round the prehistoric god-kings, and it cannot, of course, be considered as a seat of government. The political contre was shifted, under different kings, for dynastic, strategic, or political motives, to various places in Egypt, from the Upper Nile Valley to the Delta.

As the power of the kings increased, the capital was fixed at Abydos, Elephantine, and other southern cities. Under the’Middle Empira, the period of Egypt's greatest splendour, the great city, of Thebes wae the capital. Then, during a period of internal disturbance or foreign inva- siogs, it wes transferred again to the north, to Memphis, Tel-El-Amarna, and other cities of Lower Egypt. Frèm the thirteenth to the seventeenth dynastite, Ngxptian bie- tory is intricate and difficult to foligw. The Stiephertt Kings had conquered Lower Egypt, „i ew the chief authority in: Upper Egyph Bo, five dynasties, thare were two capitals, Tanis (Zoan} and, Thebes. During the latel Asiatic ware the political T

was shifted towards the Asiatic fraptier, nud

Great and his successow held their goers prima the northern city of Tenis. Under’ the Nie the period of decadence end foreign <a

12 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

was continually transferred, and it was shifted with each political change, -— now to Thebes, now to Memphis, and finally to Bubastis and Sais.

The twelfth dynasty is an important period in Egyp- tian history. The reigns of Usertesen I. and III. and Amen-Hm-Het III. are renowned for the famous perma- nent engincering achievements which did more, perhaps, for the prosperity of the country than many of the archi- tectural enterprises and foreign conquests of the eigh- teenth and ninctegnth dynasties. Amen-Em-Het III. conferred the greatest benefit on Egypt by his vast en- gineering works for regulating the inundations of the Nile. His most famous work, by which Egypt has benefited even down to the present day, was the construction of the great artificial lake, called by the Greeks Moeris, now called by the Arabs El-Fayyum. This monarch also gave later sovereigns the idea of a Nilometer, as on the cliffs at Somni he made regular measurements of the rise in the Nilo inundation.

We now enter a dark period of about five hundred years, when Egypt passed under the foreign domination — inciden- tally reterred to above, from which she freed herself only after a long and severe struggle.

The thirteenth dynasty appears at first to have carried on the government with the success inherited from its predecessors; but there are indications that the reigns of ite later kings were disturbed by internal troubles, and it is probable that actual revolution transferred power to the fourteenth dynasty, whose seat was Sais in the Delta. The new dynasty probably nover succeeded in making its away paramount; and Lower Egypt, in particular, seems to baya been torn by civil wars, and to have fallen an easy

the invader. Forced on by a wave of migration of the peoples of Western Asia, in connection, perhaps, with the conquests of the Elamiltes, or set in motion by some

EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAORS. 18

internal cause, the nomad tribes of Syria madé a suddew irruption into the northeastern border of Egypt, and, oon- quering tho country as they advanced, apparontiy without difficulty, finally established themselves in power at Mem- phis. Their course of conquest was undoubtedly made smooth for them by the large foreign clemonb in the pop- ulation of the Lower country, where, on thas sdcount, thoy may have been welcomed as a kindred people, or at least not opposed as a foreign enomy. The dynastics which the newcomers founded we know as those of the llyksog, or Shepherd Kings, — a title, however, which is nowhere given to them in genuine Egyptian texts. lt has been conjec- tured that the name Hyksos (which first occurs in the fragment of Manetho) is derived from “ Hek-Shasu,” King of the Shasu, an Egyptian name for the thieving nomad race.

After the rough work of conquest had been accom- plished, the Hyksos gradually conformed to Egyptian customs, adopted Egyptian forms of worship, and gov- erned the country just as it had been governed by the native kings. The fifteenth and sixteenth dynasties are Hyksos dynasties, probably at first holding sway over Lower Egypt alone, but gradually bringing the Upper country into subjection, or at least under tribute, The period of the seventeenth dynasty, whether we are to call it Hyksos or native Theban, or to count it as being occupied by kings of both races, was a perigd of revolt, The Theban undersking, Sekenen Re, refused tribute, and the war of liberation began, whieh, after a struggle of nearly a century, was brought to a happy conclusion by the final expulsion of the Hyksos by Aahmes, or Amesia I, the founder of the eighteenth dynasty.

The period of the foreign ee interest on account of its connection with Bible It appedrs from chronological odlculations, which are

14 THE CITY OF THE OALIPHS.

oonclusive, that it was towards the end of the Hyksos rule that the Patriarch Joseph was sold into Egypt. A king named Nubti (8.0. 1750) is supposed to have occupied the throne at the time; and the famous Hyksos king, Apepa TL., is said to have been the Pharaoh who raised Joseph to high rank, and welcomed the Patriarch Jacob and his family into Egypt.!

Aahmes I. (Amasis), the conqueror of the Hyksos usurp- ers, was the son of Ka-mes, the last of the royal race of Thebes of the seventeenth dynasty; and his mother was Queen Aah-hetep, whose jewels in the National Museum at Cairo are only exceeded in beauty and interest by those of the Princoss Hathor. This monarch is the first of the eigh- teenth dynasty, in which the history of Egypt enters upon a new phase, and what may be called the “ Expansion of Egypt” begins. Hitherto the Egyptian sovereigns had been satisfied with waging war only with their immediate neigh- bours, Now begins an active foreign policy, and we note an expansion of the national spirit. An Egyptian Empire was founded, which, by the end of the reign of Thotmes I., extended from the Euphrates in the north to Berber in the Sondan. This policy of foreign conquest was, no doubt, forced upon Aahmes and his successors by circumstances. It was essential to find employment for their large armies, whose energies had been hitherto confined to overthrowing the Hyksos dynasty. But this foreign policy, which brought Egypt into collision with the great Asiatic empires, even- tually proved a source of danger, when Egypt was no longer ruled by the warrior-kings of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth dynasties.

Thotmes II. and his sistet, the famous Hatasu (Hatehep-

)» Whose achievements are mire fully referred to in the chapter on Thebes, followed up the Asiatic vigtories of Thotmes 1. with successful expeditions into Arábia, If

‘8, A. Wallin: Budge.

EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAGHS. 16

however, reserved for her son Thotmes III. to bring > neighbouring nations into complete subjection; and Egypt, under this famous monarch, perhaps the greatest prototype of Alexander the Great in history, reached the period of its greatest material prosperity.

It was his proud boast that he planted the frontiers of Egypt where he pleased; and this was, indeed, no hyper- bolical figure. “Southwards, s# fan apparently, as the great Equatorial Lakes, which have been rediscovered in our time; northwards to the Talande of the /fgean and the upper waters of the Euphrates; over Syria and Sinai, Mesopotamia and Arabia in the East; over Libya and the North African’ coast as far as Cherchell in Algeria on the West, he carried fire and sword, and the terrors of the Egyptian name.” !

Queen Hatasu was one of the most famous royal build- ers of Egypt. “Numerous and stately ag were the obelisks erected in Egypt from the period of twelfth dynasty down to the time of Roman rule,” remarks Miss Edwards, “those set up by Hatasu in advance of the fourth pylon of the Great Temple of Karnak are the loftiest, the most admir- ably engraved, and the best proportioned. Ono has fallen ; the other stands alone, one hundred and nine feet high in the shaft, cut from a single flawless block of red granite.”

Thotmes III. was famed as much for his achievements of peace as for his foreign conquests, and some of the finest monuments at Thebes and Luxor testify to his merits as an architect. In fact, his cartouche ocoura more frequently even than that of Rameses II on antiq nf every kind, from temples and fombs down to scarabe. The fame of Thotmes’s successors, Amen-hetep IL, and Amen- hetep III., though vigorous and warlike kings, has boqa eclipsed by that of their great ancestor, though ‘thelr osii paigns in Syria and Nubia were equally successful,

1 Pharaohs, Feflahe, aud Repajeus.” ,

16 THE CITY OF THE CALIPUIS.

The reign of Amen-hetep IV. is noteworthy for an im- portant religions reform or revolution. This king, probably influenced by his mother, a princess of Semitic origin, « endeavoured to substitute a sort of Asiatic monotheism, under the form of the worship of the solar disk, for the official worship of Egypt. The cult and the very name of Amen were proscribed, the name being erased from the monuments wherever it occurred, and the king changed his own name from Amen-hetep to Khun-Aten, the ‘ Glory of the Solar Disk.’ In the struggle which ensued between the Pharaohs and the powerful hierarchy of Thebes, Khun- Aten found himself obliged to leave the capital of his fathers, and build a new one farther north called Khut- Aten, the site of which is now occupied by the villages of Tel-El-Amarna and Haggi Qandil. Here he surrounded himself with the adherents of the new creed, most of whom secm to have been Canaanites or other natives of Asia, and erected in it a temple to the solar disk as well as a palace for himself, adorned with paintings, gold, bronze, and inlaid work in precious stones.” !

The worship of Amen was, however, too firmly estab- lished to be permanently overthrown, and the great god was paramount among the Egyptian gods. Consequently the new cult took no hold upon the people. After Amen- hetep’s death the new worship died out, and the god Amen was restored as the national deity by Amen-hetep IV. (Horus). In fact, the very stones and decorations of the Temple of the Solar Disk were used in embellishing the temple of the victorious Amen at Karnak.

With the nineteenth dypasty (B. c. 1400-1200), the age of the earlier Pharaohs, —for in popular estimation

generic names of Rameses and Pharaoh are convert-

terms, though etymologist would, of course, draw a

distinction, — we enter upon the most popular period of 1 Murray's Handbook for Egypt.”

EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAORS. 17

ancient Egyptian history,— popular, that is, in the sense of familiar. Rameses I. is the least important sovereign of the Pharaonic monarchs, and is known chiefly for the war he waged with the traditional enemies of tho Theban monarchs, the Khita of Northern Syms. Hy victories were, however, but moderate, and the campaign was con- tinued with greater success by his som, Sea |. This sov- ereign successfully undertook the tusk of subjugating the Phoenicians and the Iabyans He out, tuo, the first canal between the Red Sea and the Nile. It i true that this honour has been claimed for Quven Hatasu, hut the au- thority is doubtful, being mamly based on the sculptures in which this Queen’s famous expedition to the Land of Punt is pictorially described, some of these paintings ap- parently indicating that there was some kind of waterway between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea.

Rameses I. was succeeded by tho famous Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks, and known to us as the Pha- raoh of the Oppression. Rameses II. is, no doubt, the one dominant personality in the whole field of Egyptian his- tory. His name is more widely known than that of any other Egyptian monarch. Many reasons for this universal posthumous fame can be assigned. No doubt his unusually long reign, seven years longer than the present reign of Queen Victoria (1897), has something to do with this. Then, too, the prominence given to this monarch’s reign by Herodotus and othe: Greek historians, and the wealth of traditionary lore which has centred round the legendary Sesostris, and his intimate associations with the Old Test- ament history, have contributed not a little to exalt the fame of Rameses above that of all other monarchs. ,

It must not, however, be forgotten thet his senown is to a considerable extent factitious. For instance, owing t his overweening vanity (in which, however, he did sok differ from moit other" sovereigns of Egypt) in usurping

18 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

the architectural monuments of his predecessors by carv- ing upon them his own cartouche, he got credit for these magnificent works, as well as for those which were un- deniably his own, of which the most famous are the Ramesseum, at Thebes, and the rock-hewn Temple of Abru-Simbel, in Nubia.

Then Rameses’s greatest achievement in arms, the fa- mous campaign against the Khita, which is commemorated at such inordinate length on the mural sculptures of so many temples, has been naturally somewhat magnified by Pentaur, the poet laureate of the Theban court. In a poem virtually written to order, it is necessary, of course, to discount a certain leaning towards fulsome hyperbole in this stone-graven epic. It is absurd to accept as an historical fact the extravagant statement which makes Rameses rout, single-handed, the whole Khita host.

Without wishing to deny the title of Great to this monarch, we need not follow the example of the Greek historians and accept without reserve achievements which would be more suited to the mythical god-kings of the prehistoric period.

In the reign of Rameses the Great’s successor, Mer-en- Ptah II. (Seti 111.), took place, according to most modern historians, the Exodus of the Israelites. Some chronolo- gists have, however, given a later date to this national emigration. “With the expiration of the nineteenth dynasty,” writes Dr. Wallis-Budge, “the so-called Middle Empire of Egypt came to an end, and we stand upon the threshold of the New Empire, a chequered period of gcca- sional triumphs, of internal troubles, and of defeats and gieton to a foreign yoke.”

The period from the twentieth to the end of the twenty- fifth dynasty can be rapidly summed up. Rameses III, the founder of the twentieth dynasty, was the only strong sovereign of the half-dozen who bore this:dynastic name,

EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAORS. 19

and was the last of the warrior-kings of Egypt. After his death, the country enters upon a period of degeneration and decadence, which lasted for over five hundred years. The later kings of this dynasty fell gradually under the domin- ion of the priests, which was finally consummated by the usurpation of a raco of priest-kings from Tania, who formed the twenty-first dynasty. The Trojan war was probably waged about thia time. The rule uf the high-priest of Amen was eventually overthrown by the Libyan prince, Shashank (Shishak of the (ld Testament), who founded the twonty-second dynasty and mude Bubastes the seat of government.

Egypt was now entering upon the stage of disruption, and the authority of one sovereign was virtually replaced by that of a host of petty kings, and the two following dynasties (twenty-third and twenty-fourth) are made up of a list of the more powerful of these sovereigns, who had gained a nominal supremacy. During these troublous times of internecine strife, Egypt was being harassed by two powerful neighbours, Assyria and Ethiopia. The lat- ter country, which, during the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties, had been a mere province of the empire of the

«Pharaohs, was now independent, and from about 715 8. ©. they got the better of their former masters and founded what is known as the twenty-fifth dynasty. This dynadty was, however, short-lived, and in 672 8. c. the Assyrians under Esarhaddon invaded Egypt, captured Thebes and Memphis, and, occupying the whole Delta, became masters of the country.

The history of Egypt at this period is difficult to follow, but it appears that one of the mere powerful of the native princes —- Psammoetichus, King of Sais, who was nesninally 9 viceroy of Assyria in Egypt — took advantage of the digrup- tion of the Assyrian Empire caused by the revolt of Baby- lonia, to rebel against his suzerain and expel tho Amayzian,

20 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

army of occupation. Then, by a judicious marriage with a Theban princess, the heiress of the older dynasties, Psam- metichus was able to win over Upper Egypt as well as the Delta, and to found what is known as the twenty-sixth dynasty. A transitory period of tranquillity now begins, and a sort of revival of the arts and sciences takes place, —6ne of the many periods of renaissance which Egypt has known, — which proved that many centuries of civil war and foreign oppression had not entirely crushed the artistic spirit which had been bequeathed to the Egyp- tians by their ancestors. Necho, the son of Psammetichus, next reigned. He seems to have paid as much attention to the domestic welfare and the material prosperity of his country as to foreign conquest, and among his achieve- ments was an attempt to cut a canal between the Nile and tho Red Sea. His efforts in encouraging the development of trade did a good deal towards roviving the commercial spirit of the people. It was in Necho’s reign, too, that certain Phoenician mariners in this sovereign’s service made a voyage round Africa, —an enterprise which took nearly three years to accomplish. This is the first com- plete circumnavigation of the African continent recorded in history.

For the next one hundred years Egyptian history is merged in that of Syria, Babylonia, and Persia. The his- torical sequence of events is rendered more difficult to follow by the fact that, after the victory of Cambyses in 527 B. c, till the subjugation of the Persians by Alex- ander the Great at the battle of the Issus in 882 3B. 0, —one of the most “decisive battles of the world,’ — ger was practically ẹ satrapy of the Persian Empire

ough historians reckon three skort-lived Pharaonio dynasties during this period, called the twenty-cighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth, which synchronised with the, twonty-seventh, or Persidn dynasty. This iq accounted for

EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHS. $1

by the fact that whenever a native prince got possession af the Delta, or of a considerable portion of Egypt, he became nominally sovereign of Egypt, though it waa to all intents and purposes a province of Persia.

The twenty-seventh dynasty was, in short, a period of Persian despotism, tempered by revolte more or less suc- cessful on the part of the native viceroys or satraps ap- pointed by Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerscs, and other Persian monarchs. For instance, for a few years, under Amyrteus (twentivth-cighth dynasty), Mendes (twenty-ninth dynasty), and the last native sovereign, Nectanebo 11. (thirtieth dy- nasty), Egypt was almost independent uf Persia. In B. c. 3392, when the Persian power had succumbed to the Mace- donians under Alexander the Great, this anomblous period of Egyptian quasi-independence came to an end. On the death of this monarch, Egypt fell to the share of his gen- eral, Ptolemy, who founded the important dynasty of the Ptolemies, and was hailed as the Saviour (Soter) of the country.

This concludes a necessarily brief summary of the age of the Pharaohs. In order to confine in a few pages a8 sketch of the’ history of a period covering over four thou- sand years and comprising thirty different dynasties, one can do little more than give a bare list of names of the principal sovereigns and of their more important wars. in fact, like all ancient history, the history of the pre-Ptole- maic period is in a great degree a history of empires and dynasties, foreign ware and internal revolutions, and is in » much less degree the history of the political and social prog- reas of the people. For, as Papfessor Freeman truly ob- serves, it is to the history of the Western world in Burope and America that we must naturally look for the’ highest development of art, literature, and political freedom.

CHAPTER II. THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES.!

HE dynasty of the Ptolemies is thus appropriately

designated, as it emphasises the fact that these

Macedonian sovereigns were not merely kings of Egypt, but rulers of a great composite empire.

“None of Alexandcr’s achievements was more facile, and yet none more striking, than his Egyptian campaign. His advent must have been awaited with all the agitations of fear and hope by the natives of all classes; for the Per- sian sway had been cruel and bloody, and if it did not lay extravagant burdens upon the poor, it certainly gave the higher classes an abundance of sentimental grievances, for it had violated the national feelings, and especially the national religion, with wanton brutality. The treatment of the revolted province by Ochus was not less violent and ruthless than had been the original conquest by Cambyses, which Herodotus tells us with graphic simplicity. No conquerors seem to have been more uncongenial to the Egyptians than the Persians. But all invaders of Egypt, even the Ptolemies, were confronted by a like hopelessness of gaining the sympathies of their subjects. If it was com- paratively easy to make them slaves, they were perpetually

volting slaves. This was due, not to she impatience af

@ avetage native, but rather to the hold which the national religion had gained upon his life. ; This Téligion,

1 I am indebted for moch of the information in this chapter to Profesor Mahaffy’s a

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES. 28

was administered by an ambitious, organised, haughty priesthood, whose records and traditions told them of the vast wealth and power they had once possessed, — a condi- tion of things long passed away, and never fikely to return, but still filling the imaginations of the priests, and urging them to set their people against every foreign ruler. The only chance of success for an invader jay in conciliating this vast and stubborn corporation. Every chicf who headed a revolt against the Permans had made this the centre of his policy; the support of the priests must he gained by restoring them to their old supremacy,-—— 4 supremacy which they doubtless exaggerated in their un- criticised records of the past.

“The nobles or military caste, who had been compelled to submit to the generalship of mereonary leaders, Greek or Carian, were also disposed to welcome Alexander. The priestly caste, who had not forgotten the brutal outrages to the gods by Cambyses, were also induced to hail with satisfaction the conqueror of their hereditary enemies, the Persians. Alexander was careful to display the same con- ciliatory policy to the priests of Heliopolis and Memphis which he had adopted at Jerusalem. These circumstances partly explained the attitude of the Egyptians in hailing Alexander as their deliverer rather than their conqueror.”

In order to understand the comparatively peaceful acces- sion of the Ptolemaic dynasty, we must bear in mind the cardinal principle which governed Alexander's occupation of Egypt, and his administration of the conquered provinoe.

“ Alexander had asserted the dignity and credibility of the Egyptian religion, and his determination to support it and receive support’from it. He had refused to alter the local administrations, and even appointed somo native officials to superintend it. On the ether hand, he had placed the control òf the garrison and the central author- ity in the hands of the Macedonians and Greeks, and had

24 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

founded a new capital, which could not but be a Hellenistic city, and a rallying point for all the Greek traders through- gut the country. The port of Canopus was formally olosed, and its business transferred to the new city.”

On Alexander’s death, in 828 s, ©., after a very short iliness, Ptolemy, one of his lieutenants, took over the regency of Egypt, and in 305 8.0. he was strong enough to declare himself king, and to assume the title of Soter (Saviour).

The history of the sixteen Ptolemies who form the Ptolemaic dynasty is made up of the reigns of a few powerful monarchs who held the throne sufficiently long to insure a stable government, and of a large number of short-lived and weak sovereigns, most of whom suffered a violent death. In short, the large proportion of those who died by violence is as noticeable as in the remarkable list of the prehistoric kings of Ircland. The Ptolemaic dynasty made a propitious commencement with the first three Ptolemies, who were able and powerful monarchs. During this period the prestige of Egypt among foreign nations was very high.

In 288 B. c. Ptolemy Soter died, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, leaving a record of prosperity which few men in the world have surpassed. Equally efficient whether as servant or as master, he made up for the absence of genius in war or diplomacy by his persistent good sonse, the mod- eration of his demands, and the courtesy of his manners to friend and foe alike. While the old crown of Macedon was still the unsettled prize for which rival kings staked their fortunes, he and his fellow-in-arms, Seleukos, founded a which resisted the disintegrations of the Hellenis-

world for centuries.

Perhaps of all Ptolemy's achievements, whether foreign or domestic, his famous museum and library deserves to rank fié highest. Very little is known about this remark-

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMTES. 95

able seat of learning, and Strabo’s description is painfully

meagre. This great institution was rather a university

than a museum, and was certainly the greatest glory: of, Ptolemaic Alexandria. The idea of making bis captal, ' not merely a great commercial gentre, but a centie of

arts, sciences, and literature, soeme $o havd gradually

matured in the mind of Ptolemy Soter. The college or

university, or whatever we call the mumium, was under

the most direct patronage of the king, and was, in fact,

a part of the royal palace. It included, in addition to

lceture-halls, class-rooms, dining-hell, et: , courts, cloisters,

and gardens, and was under the rule of a principal nomi-

nated by the king, who also performed the offices of a kind

of high-priest. This Alexandrian foundation was appar-

ently as much a teaching and residential university aa the

famous European universitics of Paris, Padua, or Oxford.

In tact, it served equally with the renowned academies of

Athens as a model for modern universities.

“It is indeed strange that so famous an institution should not have left us some account of its foundation, fits constitution, and its early fortunes. No other school of such moment among the Greeks 1s so obscure to us now; and yet it was founded in broad daylight of history by & famous king, in one of the most frequented cities of the world. The whole modern literature off subject fs a literature of conjecture. If if were possi exam- ine the site, which now lies twenty feet deep the modern city, many questions which we ask in vain might be answered. The real outcome of the great school is for- tunately preserved. In literary criticism, in exaat scienoe, in geography, and kindred studies, the museum made ad- vances in knowledge which were among the most impot- tant in the progress of human civilisation, If the produce

in poetry and philosophy was poor, we mpat m iik failure to the decadence of that centary, in

96- THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

with the classical days of lonia and Athens. But in pre- serving the great masters of the golden age the library, which was part of the same foundation, did more than we çan estimate.

On the death of his father, Ptolemy Soter, Philadelphus, in accordance with the traditional policy of that age, puts to death his stopbrother, Argeus, his most formidable rival. According to the historians of that period, Philadelphus is said to have complained in after-life that one of the hard- ships in a despot’s life was the necessity of putting people to death who had done no harm, merely for the sake of expediency !

Having now cleared the way to the throne, Philadel- phus makes arrangements for his coronation. We borrow the following vivid picture of these magnificent ceremonies of Philadelphus from the pages of “Greek Life and Thought : ”

« The first thing that strikes us is the ostentation of the whole affair, and how prominently costly materials were displayed. A greater part of the royal treasure at all courts in those days consisted not of coin, but of precious gold and silver vessels, and it scems ag if these were carried in the procession by regiments of richly dressed people. And although so much plate was in the streeta, there was a great sideboard in the banqueting-hall covered with vessels of gold, studded with gems. ‘People had not, indeed, sunk so low in artistic feeling os to carry pots full of gold and silver coin, which was done in the triumph of Paulus Aimilius at Rome, but still a great part of the display was essentially the ostentation of wealth. How different must have been a Panathenaic festival in the pys of Pericle! I note further that sculpture and painting of the hest kind (the paintings of the Sicyonian artists are specially named) were used for the mere pur- pose of decoration. Then, in describing the appearance of

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES. 27

the great chamber specially built for the banquet, Callixe- nus tells us that on the pilasters round the wall were a hundred marble reliefs by the first artists, in the space between them were paintings, and about them precicnd hangings with embroideries, representing mywtical subjects, or portraits of kings. We feel ourselves in a sort of glori-' fied Holborn Restaurant, where the reaowow of art aro lavished on the walls of an eating-roum. In addition to scarlet and purple, gold and silver, and skins of various wild beasts upon the walls, the pillars of the rvom repre- seuted palm-trees, and Bacchic thyrsi alternated, a design which distinctly points to Egyptian rathor than Greek taste.

“ Among other wonders, the Royal Zodlogical Gardens seemed to have been put uuder requisition, and we have a list of the various strange animals which joined in the parade. This is very interesting as showing us what ösi be done in the way of transporting wild beasts, and how far that traffic had reached. There were twenty-four huge lions, — the cpithct points, no doubt, to the African, or maned lions, — twenty-six snow-white Indian oxen, eight Ethiopic oxen, fourteen leopards, sixteen panthers, four lynxes, three young panthers, a great white bear, a came- leopard, and an Æthiopic rhinoceros. The tiger and the hippopotamus seem to have missed the opportunity of showing themselves, for they were not mentioned.

“But the great Bacchic show was only one of a large number of mummeries, or allegories, which peryaded the streeta; for example, Alexander, attended by Nike and Athene, the first Ptolemy escorted and crowned by the Greck cities of Asig Minor, and with Corinth standing beside him. Both gods and kings were there in statues of gold and ivory, and'for the most part escorted by liviig attendants, —- a curious incongruity ell through the show.

“The procession lasted a whole day, being opened by

28 "HE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

ú figure of the Morning Star and closed by Hesperus. Righty thousand troops, cavalry and infantry, in splendid uniforms, marched past. The whole cust of the feast was over half a million of our money. But the mere gold crowns, offered by friendly towns and people, to the first Ptolemy and his queen, had amounted to that sum.”

The literary materials we possess for the reign of this Ptolemy are deplorably meagre, the few extant documents being, for the most part, fulsome panegyrics of Greek chroniclers, or bare records of isolated facts, which are not of great historical value. The most interesting event in this reign is the coronation ceremony, which was conceived and carried out on a scale of unparalleled splendour and magnificence. Contemporary writers secm to have been as much dazzled by these fêtes as the Alexandrian populace. Possibly there was some deep political motive behind those magnificent spectacles, which amused the people and in- duced them to forget the atrocious domestic murders with which Philadelphus inaugurated his reign.

“We have from Phylarchus a curious passage which asserts that, though the most august of all the sovereigns of the world, and highly educated, if ever there was one, he was so deceived and corrupted by unreasonable luxury as to expect he could live forever, and say that he alone had discovered immortality ; and yet, being tortured many days by gout, when at last he got better and saw from his windows the natives on the river bank making their break- fast of common fare, and lying stretched anyhow on the

‘wand, he sighed: ‘Alas that I was mot born one of them !’”

Philadelphus is perhaps best known for his work in con- nection with the Alexandrian Museum, which had been founded by his father. He is generally allowed to have the credit of ordering the Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint; but his actual re

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLENTES. gö

sponsibility for this is still a matter of controversy with ecclesiastical historians. It is not, however, disputed that Philadelphus commissioned Manetho to write his famous History of Egypt. Of Ptolemy’s architectural achieve- ments, the most important is the Pharos at Alexandria. This famous tower, from which the French and other Latin nations derive their name for hghthowse (Phare), once ranked among the seven won lers ot the world. It was made of white marble, and waa several stories high, and inside ran a circular causeway on a gentle incline, which could be ascended by chariots. It is not known how long this lighthouse remained corect, but it was sup- posed to have been destroyed by an earthquake in 1208 A. D.

A clever epigram of Posidippus, on a second century papyrus found a few years ago, is worth quoting:

“EXAnvev cwrnpa Papou ororov, w ava Ipwrey, Sworparos extncey AeEihavous Knidos ov yap ev AsyuTrrat oxoTro. ov ploy ot emt ynowY ara yapar yAn vavAoyxos exteTaTat.”

It, is said that on a very calm day it is possible to dis- cern the ruins beneath the sea off the head of the promon- tory.

In this reign a great impetus was given to the building of temples and other commemorative structures. In addi- tion to the world-renowned Temple of Isis, a gem of Ptole- maic architecture, Ptolemy built several temples on the Delta, — notably pne at Neukratis, and one of great size on the site of the ancient Sebennytus. He also built an ini- portant port on the Red Sea, named after his daughter Berenice, which is thus deacribed in an article in the Fue ceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1887 ;

“The violent north winds that prevail in the Ref h navigation so difficult and slow for the poor shiph off: ike

80 THE CITY OF THE WALIPHS.

that Ptolemy Philadelphus established the port of Berenike. This is two hundred miles south of the ancient ports at or near Kosseir, and consequently saved that distance and its attendant delays and dangers to the mariners from South Arabia and India. I suppose the best camels and the worst ships would choose Berenike, while the best ships and the worst camels would carry the Kosseir traffic. For it 13 interesting to note that Philadelphus, at the same time that he built Berenike, also rebuilt the old Kosseir port, and Myos Hormos was still kept in repair. In former days it is probable that many a sea-sick traveller, buffeted by contrary winds, landed joyfully at Berenike, and took the twelve-days’ camel journey sooner than continue in his cramped ship, — just as now they disembark at Brindisi rather than Venice, on their way from India.”

An engintering work of the highest importance, and one which, as we shall sce later, in the chapter on Modern Egypt, proved of permanent value in the development of the agri- cultural resources of the country, was the draining of Lake Moeris, and the reclamation and irrigation, of a vast tract of country now known as Fayyum.

In a sketch of this important reign, some mention should be made of Ptolemy’s famous consort, his second wife, Arsinoe. This, to add to the difficulties of ancient chroniclers and modern historians, was also the name of Philadelphus’s first wife; but the fame of the latter is altogether eclipsed by that of the former. Even in the age of Berenices and Cleopatras, and other great prin- cesses, Arsinoe stads out prominently. Though most Egyptian queens were in a manner deified, none, with the exception of the last Cleopatra, exercised greater political influence. She took her place, beside the king, not only on coins, but among those statues at the entrance of the Odeum at Athens, whore the series of the Egyptian kings was set up. She was the only queen among them. At Olympia, where there were three statues of the king, sho had her place. Pausanias also saw, at Helicon, -a statuo of her in bronze, riding upon an ostrich. It is

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES, $1

very likely that this statue, or a replica, was present to the mind of Callimachus, when he spoke, in the “Coms Berenices,” of the winged horse, brother of the Æthiopian Memnon, who is the messenger of Queen Aminoe. Ar- ainoe died some three or four yoars before her poya! hus- band, and Pliny tells us that the disconsolate king, after her death, lent an ear to the wild scheme of an architect to build her a temple with o lodestone rooi, which might sustain in mid-air an iron statuette of the deified lady, who was identified with Isis (especially at Phile) and with Aphrodite. She had an Arsinveion over her tomb at Alex- andria, another apparently in the Fayyum, apd probably many elsewhere. Her temple on the promontéry between Alexandria and the Canopic mouth, dedicated to her by Kallikrates, where she was known as Aphrodite Zephyritis, is mentioned by Strabo, and celebrated in many epigrams. He also mentions-two towns in Atolia and Crete, two in Cilicia, two in Cyprus, one in Cyrene, besides those in Egypt, called after her. She seems only to have wanted. a Plutarch and a Roman lover to make her into another Cleopatra.

Of all the Ptolemics, Euergetes I. is the only great con- queror, and his reign should be the most interesting to the student were it not for the scantiness of material. Very little is known of this shadowy and enigmatic sovereign, and of the actual part he took in the great campaigns against the Seleucides and Cilicia — one exceeded in im- portance only by the chief ones of Ajexander — nothing is told us by the,Greek chroniclers. The eventa af the great campaign known as the Third Syrian War have, in- deed, only within recent years been known to modern historians through the accounts in the famous Petrie pe pyrus. Other important evidence for the history of this Ptolemy is the famous stone inscription known ás the Decree of Canopus, recovered by Lepsius, in 1865, from

82 THE CITY OF THE OALIPHS.

the sandes of Tanis. It was passed by the S$nod of Priests in the ninth year of this reign. It is hoped that similar decrees may be found at Phils, for in 1895 the Egyptian government intrusted the researches here to Colonel Lyons, R. E.

The difficulty of unravelling the intricate labyrinthine maze of Egyptian history during the three hundred years of Ptolemaic rule is intensified, owing to the bewildering recurrence of certain royal names. It is difficult to differ- entiate the innumerable princesses bearing the names of Borenice, Arsinoe, or Cleopatra, and, indeed, some of the Greek historians have mixed these names up in a most bewildering fashion. Another difficulty which confronts the student of this period is the custom of the sovereigns marrying their gisters. Then again, many of the kings anil queens reign conjointly. For instance we have Phi- lometer (Ptolemy VIII.) and Euergetes 11. (Ptolemy IX.) together on the throne of Egypt.

In a sketch of the age of the Ptolemies, a notice of the first three sovereigns must necessanly occupy a space which seems somewhat disproportionate for a period which fills barely a hundred years, — about one-third of the whole dynasty. But considering the importance of these reigns, this prominence does not, I think, show a want of appre- ciation of historic proportion, which has, of course, little to do with chronological proportion.

“Tried by a comparative standard,” writes Mr. David Hogarth, “the only monarchs of the Nile Valley that &pproach to absoluto greatness are Ptolemy Philadelphus I., Saladin, certain of the Mamelukes, and Mehemet Ali; for these held as their own what the veinglorious raiders of the twelfth and nineteenth dynasties but touched. and left,'and I know no prettier irony that, among all those insoribtións of Pharachs who ‘shite the Asiation’ on temple walls and temple pylons, there should occur ng

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES. 88

record of the prowess of the one king of Egypt who really smote Asiatics hip and thigh, — Alexander, gon of Philip.”

With the reign of Ptolemy IV. (Philopater), a tyran- nical and self-indulgent king, begins the decline of the Egyptian kingdom under a series of dynastic monarchs. Philopater continued the traditional foreign policy of his ancestors ; and though successful in his campaign against Sy1a, now ruled by Antiochus the Great, Egypt derived but little benefit, as the war was terminated by a peace in which the terms were distinctly unfavourable to Egypt, and were due to the weakness and incapacity of Philopater.

The carly events of the reign are thus summarised by Polybius:

“ immediately after hi» father’s death, Ptolemy Philopater put his brother Magas and his partisans to death, and took possession of the throne of Egypt. He thought that he had now freed himeelf by this act from domestic danger, and that by the deaths of Antigonus and Seleucus, and their being succeeded by mere children like An- tuochus and Philip, fortune released him trom danger abroad. He therefore felt secure of his position, and began conducting his reign as though it were a perpetual feast. He would attend to no business, and would hardly grant an interview to the officials about the court, or at the head of the administrative departiwents of Egypt. Even his agents abroad found him entirely careless and indifferent, though his predecessors, far from taking less interest in foreign affairs, had generally given them precedence over those oí Egypt itself. For being masters of Cele-Syria and Cyprus, they maintained a threat- ening attitude towards the kings of Syria, both by land and sea; and were also in a commanding position in regard to the princes of Asia, as well as the islands, through their possession of the moet splendid cities, strongholds, and harbours all along the seacoast, from Pamphylia to the Hellespont and the district round Lysima- chia. Moreover, they were favourably placed for an attack upon Thrace and Macedonia from their possession of nus Maroneia aud more distant cities still. And having thus stretched forth their hands to remote regions, and long ago strengthened their position by a ring of princedoms, these kings had never been anxious about their rule in Egypt, shd had naturally, therefore, given great aiten- tion to foreign polities.

84 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

“« But when Philopater, absorbed in unworthy intrigues and sense- less and continual drunkenness, treated these several branches of | government with equal indifference, it was naturally not long before more than one was found to lay plots against his life as well as his power: of whom the first was Cleomenes, the Spartan.”

The decisive battle of Raphia, which tcrminated the Fourth Syrian War, is described with great circumstantial detail by Polybius. We can only find room for the follow- ing graphic specimen from this despatch of the most famous Greek prototype of modern war correspondents:

« Ptoleiny, accompanied by his sister, having arrived at the left wing of his army, and Antiochus with the royal guard at the right, they gave the signal for the battle, and opened the fight by a charge of elephants.

«Only some few of Ptolemy’s elephants came to close quarters with the foe. Seated on these, the soldiers in the howdahs main- tained a brilliant fight, lunging at and striking each other with crossed pikes; but the elephants themselves fought still more bril- liantly, using all their strength in the encounter, aud pushing against each other, forehead to forehead.

«The way in which elephants fight is this: they get their tusks entangled and jammed, and then push against one another with all their might, trying to make each other yield ground, until one of them, proving superior in strength, has pushed aside the other’s trunk; and when once he can get a side blow at his enemy, he pierces him with his tusks, as a bull would with his horns. Now, most of Ptolemy's animals, as is the way with Libyan elephants, were afraid to face the fight, for they cannot stand the smell or the trumpeting of the Indian elephants, but are frightened at their | size and strength, I suppose, and rnn away from them at once with- out waiting to come near them.

« This is exactly what happened on this occasion, and upon their being thrown into confusion and being driven back upon their own lines, Ptolemy’s guard gave way before the rush of the animals; while Antiochus, wheeling his men so as to avoid the elephants, charged the division of cavalry under Polycrates. At the same time the Greek mercenaries, stationed near the phalanx and behind the elephants, charged Ptolemy's peltasts and made them give ground, the elephants having already thrown their ranks mto confusion.

“Thus Ptolemy's whole left wing began to give way before the

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES. 86

enemy. Echecrates, the commander of the right wing, waited at first to see the result of the struggle between the other wings of the two armies; but when he saw the dust coming his way, and that the elephants opposite his division were afraid even to ap- proach the hostile elephants at all, he ordered Phoxidas to charge the part of the enemy opposite hii with hix (Greak mereenaries, while he made a flank movement with the cavalry gnd the division behind the elephants, and so getting out of the tin af the hostile elephants’ attack, charged the enemy's cavalry ou the rear or the flank, and quickly drove them from the giaumi. Phoxddas and his men vere similarly successful; for they charged the Arabians and Medes, and forced them into precipitate flighi. Thus Antiochus's iitht wing gained a victory, while hix left was defeated. The phalanxes left without the support of ether woug, remaimed intact in the ceutre of the plain, in a state of alternate hope and fear for the result. Meanwhile, Antiochus was assisting in gaining the vic- tory on his right wing; while Ptolemy, who had retired behind his phalanx, now came forward in the centic, and showing himself in the view of both armies, struck terror into the hearts of the enemy, but inspired great spirit and enthusiasin ım his own men; and Andromachus and Sosibius at once ordered them to lower their sarisse and charge. The picked Syrian troops stood their ground only for a short time, and the division of Nicarchus quickly broke and fied.

“ Antiochus, presuming, in his youthful inexperience, from the success of his own division that he would be equally victorious all along the line, was pressing on the pursuit; but upon one of the ‘blder officers at length giving him warning, and pointing out that the cloud of dust raised by the phalanx was moving towards their own camp, he understood too late what was happening, and endeavoured to gallop back with the squadron of royal cavalry to the field. But finding his whole line in full retreat, he was forced to retire to Raphia, comforting himself with the belief that, as far as he was personally concerned, he had won a victory, but had been defeated in the whole battle by the want of spirit and courage shown by the rest.

“ Ptolemy, having secured the final victory by his phalanx, and killed large numbers of the enemy in the pursuit by means of his cavalry and mercenaries on his right wing, retired to his own camp and there spent the night. But next day, after picking up and burying his own dead, and stripping the bodies of the enemy, he

86 TILE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

advanced towards Raphia. Antiochus had wished, immediately after the retreat of his urmy, to make a camp outside the city, and there rally such of his men as had fled in compact bodies; but find- ing that the greater number had retreated into the town, he was compelled to enter it himself also. Next morning, however, before daybreak, he led out the relics of his army, and made the best of his way to Gaza. There he pitched a camp, and having sent an embassy to obtain leave to pich up his dead, he obtained a truce for performing their obsequies. His loss amounted to nearly ten thou- sand infantry and three hundred cavalry killed, and four thousand taken prisoners. Three elephants were killed on the field, —- two died afterwards of their wounds. On Ptolemy's side the losses were fifteen hundred infautiy and seven hundred cavalry ; sixteen of his elephants were hilled and most of the others captured.”

Such was the result of the battle of Raphia between King Ptolemy and Antiochus for the possession of Ccele- Syria.

Though as a warrior and statesman the fourth Ptolemy shows a decided interiority to his father, he seems to have been deserving of some praise as a patron of literature, and showed his admiration of Homer by building a magnificent temple in his honour. Then, as a builder, he emulated Rameses or Thotmes, and remains of his work are to be seen at Edfu and Philæ, as well as at Thebes, where he raiscd that exquisite shrine known as Deir-cl-Medinet, of which some account is given in a later chapter, on Thebes and its temples.

We may profitably skip the short and unimportant reigns of several Ptolemies to the ninth Ptolemy, called usually Euergetes 1I. Antiochus IV. of Syria had con- quered a great part of Lower Egypt and attempted to restore" Philometer, a son of Ptolemy V. The Alexah-

‘ans, however, who, as Professor Mahaffy points out, “voiced” the will of Egypt more completely than Paris does of France at the present day, supported the claims of Kuergetes. All through this reign, or rather joint

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES. 87

reigns, of Euergetes and Philometer, we find the Roman Senate acting as arbiter, and both sovercigns went to Rome to prosecute their claims in person. A curious side-light is thrown on these intrigues bygPlutarch, who mentions that Kuergetes offered the chance of becoming Queen of Egypt to Cornelia, the high-souled wother of the yracchi. No doubt “a Cornelia on the throne at Alex- andria would have been a real novelty ameng the Cleo- patras. But the great Roman lady probably held him in such esteem as an English nublewoman now would hold an Indian rajah proposing marriage.”

In 146 s. c., Philometer led an urmy to help his son-in-law, Alexander, recover Syria fron. Demetrius, and died from wounds received in battle. There is a striking contrast between the characters of the two brother-kings, who for nearly a quarter of a century jointly controlled the destinies of Egypt. Philometer (Ptolemy VII.) was one of the most able of the later sovereigns of the house of Ptolemy. A good and apparently unbiassed sketch of his life is given in the following passage from Polybius:

“Ptolemy, King of Syria, died from a wound received in the war; a man who, according to some, deserved great praise and abiding remembrance; according to others the reverse. If any king before him ever was, he was mild and benevolent, a very strong proof of which is that he never put any of his own ‘frjends’ to death on any charge whatever, and I believe also not a single man at Alex- andria owed his death to him. Again, though he Was notoriously ejected from his throne by his brother in the first place, when he got a clear opportunity against him in Alexandria, he granted him a complete amnesty; and afterwards, when his brother once more made a plot against him to seize Cyprus, though-he got him body and soul into his hands at Lapthus, he was so far from punishing him as an enemy, that he even made him grants in addition to those which formerly belonged to him in virtue of the treaty made between them, and, moreover, promised him his daughter. How- ever, in the course of a series of successes and prosperity, hia mind became corrupted; he fell a prey to the dissoluteness and effem-

88 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

inacy characteristic of the Egyptians, and these vices brought him into serious disasters.”

Space fails us for a sketch of the reigns of the four Ptolemies who succeed Philopater. Under Epiphanes (Ptolemy V.), the domestic affairs of Egypt fell into a state of deplorable confusion; ‘onc rebellion succeeded another, and anarchy prevailed everywhere.’ In order to maintain his authority, Epiphanes was fain to ask the protection of the Roman Senate. From this time down to the conquest of Egypt by Octavius, the country of the Pharaohs was, to all mtents and purposes, a Roman prov- ince under a viceroy, who was allowed the titular rank of king.

On the death of Ptolemy VI., in 181 B. c., a period of alternate despotism, anarchy, and joint-sovereignty begins, which is difficult to follow. In Bc. 146, Euergetes Il. (Ptolemy IX.) besieges Alexandria and occupies the throne, though he is nominally merely the regent of the kingdom, and guardian of the intant sovereign, Ptolemy, surnamed Neos. Huergetes, however, when he had got the Alexandrians on his side, did not scruple to put the infant king to death, and occupy himself the blood-stained throne of Egypt. Aiter having reigned some fifteen years at Alexandria, Euergetes has to flee to Cyprus, having alienated his subjects through his cruelties and debauch- ery. Some years later he appears to have returned from exile and regained possession of his throne.

It is difficult to unravel the confused and conflicting statements of the great historians as regards the later events ofgbis throne, but the datc of his death, 117 B. c., is nd disputed.

With his death the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, so- far as it is worth recording, may be brought to a close. “There is nothing of public interest to follow till we come to the

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES. 89

last scene,” to the reign of the notorious Cleopatra VI., the Cleopatra of Shakespeare.

This famous, or rather infamous, queen, daughter of Auletes (Ptolemy XIIL), who came so near to revolu- tionise the history of the Roman Empire, was born about 69 B.C.

Auletes, who died 51 3. c., has earned the bad emi- nence of being the most worthless, incapable, and cruel of all the Ptolemics. If we take Cicero’s estimate as correct, he was pliant and persuasive when iu need, mak- img boundless promises of money to men of influence at Rome, but tyrannical and ruthless when in power, taking little account of human life when it thwarted his interests, or even balked his pleasures. With the priests, however, he seems to have been on friendly terms.

With the succession of Cleopatra we enter upon one of the most familiar epochs of Egyptian, or rather Roman, history, and the intrigues of the Egyptian queen with Cesar, and subsequently with Antony, are familiar to every one. The real cause of the war which broke out between Rome and Egypt in 31 a.p. scems a little obscure. In tact, the conduct of Antony in celebrating a grand Roman triumph at Alexandria, after a doubtful victory (84 B. c.) over the Parthians, seems to have alienated and disgusted the Roman'Senate. But it was the formal distribution af provinces which gave most offence at Rome, and preved the chief casus belli put forward by Octavius. This was naturally regarded as a theatrical piece of insolence and contempt of his country: “For, assembling the people in the exercise-ground, and causing two golden thrones to be placed on a platform of silver, the one for him and the other for Cleopatra, and at their feet lower thrones for their thildren,,;he proclaimed Cleopatra Queen of Egypt, Cyprus, Libya, and Coele-Syria, and with her, conjointly, Cesarion, the reputed son of the former Cæsar. His own

40 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

sons by Cleopatra were to have the style of ‘king of dings;’ to Alexander he gave Armenia and Media with Parthia, so soon as it should be overcome; to Ptolemy, Pheenicia, Syria, and Cilicia. Alexander was brought out before the people in Median costume, with the tiara and upright peak ; and Ptolemy, in boota and mantle and Mace- donian cap done about with the diadem, — for this was the habit of the successors of Alexander, as the other was of the Medes and Armenians. And as soon as they had saluted their parents, the one was received by a guard of Macedonians, the other by one of the Armenians. Cleo- patra was then, as at other times when she appeared in public, dressed in the habits of the goddess Isis, and gave audicnee to the people under the name of the new Isia.”

The usual view of historians is that Cleopatra’s flight to Egypt, after the disastrous battle of Actium, was prompted by cowardice; but in view of the strong character of this queen, it is more likely that she came to the conclusion early in the fight that Antony’s cause was lost, and that her naval contingent would only swell the spoils of Octa- vius. She probably knew, too, that her life would be for- foited if she were taken prisoner with her fleet. But there was still a chance, if Antony were killed or taken pris- oner, that she might negotiate with the conqueror as Quecn of Egypt with her flect and treasure intact. Besides, as Professor Mahaffy points ont, who could tell what effect her personal charms, although now somewhat mature, might have upon (Octavius? She had already subjugated two far greater Romans,— Cesar and Antony,— why not a third? For the closing scencs of Cleopatra’s life we can go to Shakespvarg, whose history hefe is less at fault than is the case ip his English historical plays, as the whole narra- tive is scrupulously reproduced from Plutarch. The last scene of the tragedy is vividly pictured by Dion:

THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOQLEMIES. 41

« After her repast, Cleopatra sent Cæsar a letter which she had written and sealed, and puttıng everybody out of the monument but her two women, she shut the doors. Cæsar, opening her letter, and finding pathetic piayers and entreaties that she might be buried in the same tomb with Antony, soon guessed what was doing. At first he was going himself in all haste, but, changing his mind, he sent others to see. The thing has been quickly done. The messen- gers came at full speed and found the guards apprehensive of noth- ing, but on opening the doots they saw her stone-dead, lying upon a hed of gold, set out in all her royal ornaments. Iras, one of her women, lay dying at her feet; and Charmuion, just ready to fall, scarce able to talk and hold up her head, was adjusting her mis- tress’s diadem. Ahd when one that came in suid angrily, ‘Was thy well done of your lady, Charmion?’ ‘Perfectly well, she answered, ‘and as became the daughter of many kings;’ and as she said this, she fell down dead beside the bedside.”

When modern people wonder at the daring of the last of the Cleopatras, who has been embalmed in the prose of Plutarch and the verse of Shakespeare, they seldom know or reflect that she was the last of a long series of prin- cesses, probably beautiful and accomplished, certainly dar- ing and unscrupulous, living every day of thcir lives in the passion of love, hate, jealousy, and ambition, wielding dominion over men or dying in the attempt. But, alas! except in the dull, lifeless effigies on coins, we have no portraits of these terrible persons, no anecdotes of their tamer moments, no means of distinguishing one Cleopatra from the rest, amid "the catalogue of parricides, incesta, exiles, and bereavements.

The battle of Actium made Octavius master of the Mediterranean, and Egypt of course became a mere prov- ince of Rome, until it fell an easy prey to the rising Mohammedan power some six centuries later. The his- tory of Egypt under Arab rule will form the subject of the next chapter. `

CHAPTER Il. THU RULL OF THE CALIPHS.

ITE period of some 650 years, from the fall of the

Ptolemaic Empire (8. c. 80) down to the Mohamme- dan cunquest in 638 a. p., need not detain us long. This age is an uneventful one for Egypt, now reduced to the position of a mere province of the Roman Empiro, and then — on the disruption of the Empire and its partition in 395 A.D., when the two sons of the Emperor Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius, ruled respectively over the Eastern and Western Empires —a portion of what may be con- viently called the Byzantine Empire.

In the early part of the seventh century the great Semitic race of the Saracens begins to play a most important part in the world’s history, and with little difficulty the army of the Caliph Omar under Amru wrests the province of Egypt‘ from Rome.

We “how enter upon a picturesque period of Egyptian history, though it is of more importance to lovers of the arts than to historians. It lasts fon nearly nine hundred years, till the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. The chief historical landmarks of this long epoch of Mohammedan rule are Ahmed Ibn-Tulun, El-Muizz, Saladin, and En-Nasr Mohammed.

Amru, fully alive to the suitability of the site of the Roman stronghold of Babylon, bhilds here his new capital, called Foggat (old Cairo). This is some two miles south of miern Cairo., The latter city ig often erroneously attributed to Saladin. This enlightened monarch no doubt

THE RULE OF THE CALIPRS. 48

improved the new capital considerably, and fortified it ; but the modern city dates from 969 a.p., when El-Muizz, the first of the Fatimite dynasty (Tunis), transferred the seat of the government, and we might also say of the Caliphate, from Kerouan (the “ Holy City”) to a site about two milos tiom Fostat. To this new city, Gohar, the Caliph’s gen- ‘ral, gave the proud title of Masr-El-Kahira (the Vivtori- ous), a name which was corrupted by Europeans into Cairo, though the natives still call it Masr. Gohar’s design was, however, at first limited to a fortress and patace for his m ster, and for some time the new site was ouly the royal 1hidence of the Caliph El-Muizz. Here lived the harem, th» court, and the garrison, and in this enormous encetnte, lived, so say the Arab chroniclers, over twelve thousand souls. It was not till the reign of the great Saladin that the walls of the palace were cxtended to include a city, which even then, in the twelfth century, occupied as large a site as intra-mural Cairo of to-day; that is, about three miles long, and a mile to a mile and a half wide.

“ Most of these changes,’ remarks Mr. Stanley Lanc- Poole, “can be traced in the present city. A small part of Fostat remains under the name of Masr-El-Atika (old Cairo), separated from the capital by the great moynds of rubbish which indicate vanished suburbs. Of Kahira the whole growth can readily be traced. The second wall still stands on the north side, though the magnificent Norman- looking gateway of the Bab-En-Nasr, or ‘ Gate of Victory,’ with its mighty square towers and fine vaulting within, and the Bab-El-Futuh, or ‘Gate of Conquests,’ flanked with massive round towers, are not quite on their origital sites. The cornice and frieze, adorned with fine Kufic inscriptions, which run along the face Of the gateway and the faces and Inner sides of the two towers half-way from the ground, no less than its solid and clean-cut masonry, distinguish the ‘Gate of Victory’ among Saracenic monuments.

44 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

“The second wall is still visible at the eastern boundary of the city, and its other sides may be traced by the names of demolished ates, as the Water Gate (Bab-El-Bar), the Bab- Bl-Luk, and the Bab-El-Khalak ; while the Bab Zuweyla, still standing in the heart of the city, is one of the most striking buildimgs in Cairo, though its walls and inscrip- tions are daubed over with plaster, and its towers are low- ered to make room for the minarets of the adjoining Morque of El-Muayyad. The second wall, thus mapped out, must have run from near the present bridge over the Ismuliya Canal, along the western side of the Ezbekiya (where the wall was standing in 1842), to near the Abdin Palace, where it turned up to the Bab Zuweyla, and was prolonged to the eastern wall.

“Since 1t was built, the Nile has considerably changed its course, and now runs much farther to the westward. Sal- adin’s wall was a restoration of this in part, but his addition (begun in 1170) round the citadel is in partial preservation, like the fortress itself, though the continuation round the site of Katai on the south is demolished. The names of the gates, however, show that the limits of the present city on the south are nearly what they were in Saladin’s day, and this wall must have run from the Citadel to near the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, enclosed it, and turned north to meet the old wall near Bab-El-Luk.

“The limits of the modern additions are only too plain, but street improvements of the reigning dynasty happily do not extend to the old Fatima Quarter, and indeed scarcely affect Saladin’s city, except in the prolongation and widen- ing of the Mooski, the opening of the broad Boulevard Mchemet Ali up to the Citadel, and the laying out of the Rumayla Quarter and the Kara-Meydan in the usual Euro- pean giv With these exceptions, the modern additions extend only from the Ezbekiya Quarter to the river, and consists of a number of parallcl boulevards and rendes

THE RULE OF THE CALIPHS. 45

places, where ugly Western uniformity is partly redeemed by some cool, verandahed villas, and the grateful shade of trees.”

In short, the three creators of modern Cairo are Sala- dın, Mehemet Ali, and Ismail. Saladin bit it, Mehemet Ah enlarged it, and Ismail cmbellished and modernised it

Under the Saracens Egypt was governed by no tess than a hundred and forty four rulers, some of whom were merely governors or viziers under the Damascus and Bag- did Caliphs respectively, while the moire powerful of these dynasties, as we shall sec latcr, claimed the title of Caliphs, and were virtually mdependent kings of Egypt. :

These dynasties of Mohammedan rule, amounting to no Lg than ten, cover a period of history comparatively fea- tureless and unimportant. Egypt under the Caliphs seems to have no external history to speak of, except during the 1cign of Saladin, and some of the Mameluke Sultans, such ay El Ashraf, who captured Acie, and Bursbey, who recon- yucred Cyprus. The only important dynasties are those of the Omayyades, Abbassides, Fatimites (Tums), Ayyubides (Kurdish), and the two slave dynastics of the Mamelukes, —the Baharide and the Circassian. The most picturesque and interesting are the two latter.

This is a period which Mr. Stanley Lanc-Poole has made his own, and for a graphic picture of the Mameluke qays we must go to this author’s “ Arabian Society in the Middle Ages,” “The Art of the Saracens,” and other works deal- ing with mediaeval Egypt. An appreciable part of the his- tory of this period is to be read in the Cairo mosques, for most of these magnificent shrines of Islam were built by the Mameluke sovereigns.

In order to understand, however, the course of events in Egypt from the fourth to the fifteenth century, it is neces- sary to bear in mind the involved question of the Caliphate

46 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

and ita succession The first four Caliphs, Abu-Bekr, Omar, Othman, and Ah, were either kinsmen or principal adherents of the Prophet Thcn we have the rule of the Omay yades, which lasted for nearly a hundred years When the last of the racc, Marwan I] , was killed in battle, a descendant of Abbas, an unch of Mohammed, founded the impo:tant dynisty of Abbassidcs, and the scat of the Caliphate 1s transfericd from Dimiscus to Bagdad In the tenth cen tury the power of the Cahphate of Bagdad declined, and its claim to the temporal ind spiritual sovereignty of Islam was only acknowkdgcd in theory by the Egyptian Cali phate In fact the Cahphs of Bagdid gradually fell under the control of thei vizicrs or governors in Lgypt, Just as the Mciovinyiin sovereigns had become subject to the “ Mayors of the Palacc’ = In the twelfth century we see the Fatimite dynasty of Tunis, who claimed descent from Fatima, the diuzhtcr of Mohimmcd, in possession of the Lyyptian C ihphitc, and membcis of this fimily suc cecded in maintiuming then rule for over 1 ecntury, til] in 1169 they were oveithrown by the victorious Saladin, who founded the Avyubidcs (Kurdish) dynasty

This great sovcicizn does not ot first claim the title of Caliph, but brings bach Egypt nominally unde: the spint- ual control of the Caliph of Bagdad Saladin deservedly ranks as one of th greatest, and incontestably the most enlightened, of all the sovereigns of Egypt from Pharaonic days downwards, and under his rule Egypt 1s transformed fiom a small kingdom into a powerful empire. In fact, this period is closely bound up with the most important events in European history, and every one 1s familar with Saladin’s magnificent campaigns in Palestine, his conquest of Jerusalem, and the treaty with the English king, Richard] , and these are only a small part of his exploits. Sala@m, too, combined in a marked degree the genius for war with the love of the beautiful, says Mr. Stanley Lane-

THE RULE OF THE CALIPHS. 47

Poole; and the walls of Cairo and the noble Citadel bear witness to his encouragement of arthitecture.

«Saladin’s empire needed a strong hand to keep it united, and the number of relatives who demanded their share of his wide provinces rendered the survival of the Ayyuby dominion precarious. Saladin’s brather controlled the centrifugal tendencies of his kindred for a while, and his son, El-Kamil, gloriously defeated Jean de Brienne on the spot where the commemorative city of Hl-Mansura (the Victorious) was afterwards erected by the conqueror. After his death in 1237, however, the forces which made for disintegration became too strong to be resisted; vari- ous petty dynasties of the Ayyuby family were tempora- rily established in the chief provinces, only to make way shortly for the Tartars, and in Egypt and in Syria notably tur the Mamelukes, who in 1250 succeeded to the glories of Saladin.”

The strict meaning of Mameluke is “owned,” and the Egyptian Mamelukes were originally white slaves. They were first employed by the Sultan Es-Salih in the middle of the thirteenth century as mercenaries, and in many respects they resembled the Janissaries of the later Turks, a body first raised for a similar purpose by the Ottoman Sultans, about a century later. The Mamelukes soon ob- tained the control of the army and became an important

factor in the body politic of Egypt, and in a few years gained the chief authority, by 1250 a.D. becoming suffi- ciently powerful to seize the throne.

The Sultans of this Mameluke dynasty offer remarkable contrasts. Slaves in origin, and warriors by trade as well as by inclination, bloodthirsty and ferocious, this dynasty of adventurers had an appreciation of art which wqnld have done credit, as Mr. Lane-Poole aptly remarks, to the most civilised rulers that ever sat on a constitutional throne. “It is one of the most singular facts in Eastern history,

48 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

that, wherever these rude Tartars penetrated, there they inspired a great and vivid enthusiasm for art. It was the Tartar Ibn-Tulun who built the first example of the true Saracenic mosque at Cairo; it was the line of Mameluke Sultans, all Turkish or Circassian slaves, who filled Cairo With the most beautiful and abundant monuments that any city can show. The arts were in Egypt long before the Tartars became her rulers, but they stirred them into new life, and made the Saracenic work of Egypt the centre and headpiece of Mohammedan art.

“ Why this should be,—why the singularly tyrannical, bloodthirsty, and unstable rule of the Mamelukes should have fostered so remarkable a development of art, — re- mains, as we have said, a mystery; but the fact is indis- putable that the period of Frankish and Circassian tyranny in Egypt and Syria was the age of efflorescence of the purest Saraceni¢ art in all its branches.

“Wherever the Saracens carried their conquering arms, a new and characteristic style of art is seen to arise. In the mosques and private houses of Cairo, of Damascus, of Kairowan, of Cordova and Seville, throughout Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, North Africa, and Spain, and in Sicily and the Balearic Isles, we trace their jnfluence in the thoroughly individual and characteristic style of architecture and ornament which is variously known as ‘Arabian, ‘Mohammedan,’ ‘Moorish,’ and ‘Saracenic.” The last term is the best, because the most comprehemsixe ‘Arabian’ seems to imply that the art owed its origin to Arabia and the Arabs, whereas it was only when the Arabs left Arabia and ceased to be purely Arabian, that the style of art miscalled Arab made its appearance. ‘ Mohamme- dan’ indicates that the art was the work and invention of Muslimagwhich can hardly be maintained in the face of the fact&Phat the first great monument of Saracenic architec- ture in Egypt was designed by a Christian, and that much

THE RULE OF THE OALIPHS. 49

of the finest work was produced by Copts and Greeks. ‘Moorish’ limits the art to the Mohammedan rulers of Spain, where indeed a singularly magnificent development of the style took place; but this was neither the earliest nor the most typical form. ‘Saracenic’ art includes all the work of the countries under Saracen rule, and, more- over, carries with it the perfectly accurate impression that the chief development of the art was at the time when the Saracens were a fighting power, and the name was a house- hold word among the crusading nations of the West.”

The famous collection in the National Museum of Arabic Art, which is described in a subsequent chapter, aflords abundant proofs of the extraordinary development in the decorative arts attained by Egypt under the Mame- lukes.

By some historians Mclik-es-Salih is reckoned as the founder of the Mameluke dynasty. It is true that it was during his reign that the Mamelukes, whose influence and power had been steadily increasing after the death of Saladin, first became a factor of the greatest importance in the government of the country; but Melik was himself one of the Ayyubide Kurds, and was, in fact, a grand- nephew of Saladin. On Melik’s death and the accession of a weak and incapable sovereign, the Mamelukes, headed hy El-Muizz-Ebek, seized the throne. Ebek, who had firengthened his position by marrying Melik’s widow, was in fact the founder of the Mameluke dynasty.

The genesis of this dynasty of adventurers is well de- scribed by Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole:

“« Before El-Salih’s death, a certain number of his Mamelukes had risen from the ranks of common slaves to posts of honour at their master’s court; they had become cup-bearers, or tasters, or mas- ters of the horse to his Majesty, and had been rewarded by enfran- chisement; and these freed Mamelukes became, in turn, masters and owners of other Mamelukes. Thus, at the very beginning of

50 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

the Mameluke history, we find a number of powerful amurs, or lords, who had risen from the ranks of the slaves, and in turn became the owners of a large body of retainers, whom they led to battle, or by whore aid they aspned to ascend the throne. The only title of kingship among these nobles was personal prowess, and the com- mand of the largest number ot adherents. In the absence of other influences, the hereditary principle was no doubt adopted, and we find one family, that ot Kalaun, maintaining its succession to the throne for sevcial generations, but, a3 a rule, the successor to the kingly power was the most powertul lord of the day, and his hold on the throne dei nded cluefly on the strength of his following, and his conciliation of the other nobles. The annals of Mameluke dominion are full of instances of a great lord reducing the author- ity of the reigning Sultan to a shadow, and then stepping over his murdered body to the throne.”

The great Sultan Bebars is a typical representative of the rulers of this military oligarchy which controlled the destinies of Egypt for over three centuries. In many re- spects Bebars resembled Saladin, and his romantic career has much in common with that of the founder of the present dynasty, Mehemet Ali. His wonderful force of character and diplomatic talents no doubt contributed to his strikingly successful career as much as his personal courage and capacity for governing men, qualities in which few of the Mameluke Sultans were deficient. These quali- ties, too, enabled this one-cyed slave not only to gain the throne, but to keep it for nearly twenty years, — an unusu- ally long reign for 2» Mameluke, which averages five or sif) years only, — and to found an empire that endured for nearly three hundred years.

Bebars’s reign is a fair sample of the history of this epoch, and in Marco Polo we glean many intercsting details of this picturesque personality. Bebars was a native of Kipchak, a district between the Caspian Sea and the Ural oe Of magnificent physique, he had one serious de ct, from the slave-trader’s point of view,— a cataract in one eye. On this account he only sold for £20. He

THE RULE OF THE CALIPHS. 51

eventually passed into the possession of the Sultan Es- Sahh In the war against the saintly Louis of France and his Crusaders, Bebars distinguished himself so markedly that he was given high command in the Mameluke army Taking advantage of the dissensions and mivalry of the Mameluke generals, and the incapacity of the Sultan Kd Mudhaffer, he seizes the throne with little difficulty, having won over the army to his side

Thus begins that singular succession of Mameluke Sul- tins which lasted, in spite of special tendencies to disso- lution, fo: two hundred and seventy-five years

[h external history of these years 18 monotonous Wars to 1} | the invasions of the Taitars or to drive the Christians from the Holy Land struggles between rival claimants to the throne, eml asses to and from foreign powcrs, including France and Venice, ti Khin of Persia and the king of Abyssinia, constitute the staple (ff reign affairs Io enumerate the events of each reign, or even tre names of the fifty Mamelukes who sat on the throne at Cairo, would be wearisome and unprofitable to the reader But 1t 1s difter- ent with the mternal aftairs of the Mameluke period In this flow- ‘ring time of Saracenic art, a real interest belongs to the hfe and 8 cial condition of the people who mad and encouraged the finest productions of the Oriental artist History can show few more startling contrasts than that offered by the spectacle of a band of disorderly soldiers, to all appearance barbarians, prone to shed }lood merciless to their enemies tyrannous to their subjects, yet de- hghting in the delicate refinements which art could afford them in focir home life, lavish in their endowment of pious foundations, mignificent i their mosques and palaces, and fastidious ın the smallest details of dress and furniture Allowing all that must be sllowed for the passion of the barbarian for display, we are still far from an explanation how the Tartars chanced to be the noblest pro- moters of art, of hterature, and of pubhc works, that Egypt had Known since the days of the Ptolenues ”

To resume our sketch of the most picturesque figure among all the Mameluke sovereigns

“So well did Bebars organise his wide-stretching provinces, that nO incapacity or disunion among his successors could pull down the

62 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

fabric he had raised, until the wave of Ottoman conquest swept at last upon Egypt and Syria. To him is due the constitution of the Mameluke ariny, the rebuilding of a navy of forty war-galleys, the allotment of feofs to the lords and soldiers, the building of causeways and bridges, and digging of canals ın various parts ot Egypt.

“ He strengthened the foitiesses of Syria, and garrisoned them with Mamelukes, he connected Damascus and Cairo by a postal service of four days, and used to play polo 1n both cities within the Bame week ”

In Marco Polo will be found an interesting example of the business hours of this famous Sultan. He arrived before Tyre one night; a tent was immediately pitched by torchlight; the secretaries, seven in number, were sum- moned with the commander-in-chief; and the adjutant- general (Anir Alam), with the military gecretaries, were instructed to draw up orders. For hours they ceased not to write letters and diplomas, to which the Sultan affixed his seal; this very night they indited in his presence fifty- six diplomas for high nobles, each with its proper intro- duction of praise to God. One of these letters has been preserved ; it is a very characteristic epistle, and displays a grim and sarcastic appreciation of humour. It appears that Boemond, Prince of Antioch, was not present at the assault of that city by Bebars, and the Sultan kindly con- veyed the information of the disaster in a personal despatch. He begins by ironically complimenting Boemond on hid change of title, from- prince to count, in consequence of the fall of his capital, and then goes on to describe the siege and capture of Antioch, sparing his correspondent no detail of the horrors that ensued. The letter winds up by an ironical felicitation on Boemond’s absence: “ This letter . holds happy tidings for thee ; it tells thee that God watches over, thi, inasmuch as in these latter days thou wast not in Antioch! As not a man hath escaped to tell thee the tale, we tell it thee; as no soul could apprise thee that

THE RULE OF THE CALIPHS, 58

thou art sate, while all the rest have perished, we apprise thee'” It would seem that, not unnaturally, the unfor- tunate Prince of Antioch was highly incensed with the Sultan’s sarcastic attentions.

The most ample details of the outward lıfe qf the Mame- lukes may be gathered in the chromcles of the Arab his- torian, El-Makrizy , but if we seek to know something of the domestic hfe of the period, we must goelsewhere We occasionally find, indeed, in this historian an account of the 1evels of the court on great festivals, and he tells us how, during some festivities in Bebars’s reign, there was a conceit every might in the Citadel, where a torch was gently waved to and fro to keep the time

But to undergtand the home lite of the Mamelukes, we must turn to the ‘Thousand and One Nights, wheie whatever the npin and scene of the stores the manners and customs are drawn {1 m the society which the narrators saw about them in Cano in the day of the Mamelukes F:iom the doings of the characters ın that immortal story book we may form a nearly accurate idea how the Mamelukes amused themselves, and the vatious articles of luxury that have come down to us—the goblets, incense-burners, Towls and dishcs of fine inlaid silver or gold—go to confirm the hdclity of the picture The wonderful thing about this old Moham- medan society 18 that ıt was what it was in spite of Islam With ill their prayers and fasts and irritating ritual, the Moslems of the Middle Ages contrived to amuse themselves Even in their relig- gu they found opportunities for enjoyment They made the most ot the festivals of the faith, and put on their best clothes, they made up parties to visit the tombs, indeed, but to visit them nght merrily on the backs of their asses they let their servants go out and amuse themselves, too, in the gaily 1llumin sted streets, hung with silks and satins, and filled with dancers, jugglers, and revellers, fantastic figures, the Onental Punch, and the Chinese Shadows, or they went to witness the thrilling and hornfying performances of the dervishes ”

Contemporaneous with the accession of the first Mame- luke dynasty 1s the commencement of the great Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Turks were so called from their

54 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

first leader, Othman, who, towards the end of the thir- teenth century, seemed likely to swallow up not only the Asiatic provinces of the Byzantine Empire, but all Chris- tendom. The Turks were not, like the Saracens, a Sem- itic race, nor were they of Aryan descent, but of Mongolian or Tartar origin. Though the Turks and Arabs are often loosely described, as if they were of the same nationality, they have, in fact, nothing in common except their religion. In 1453 the capital of the Empire, Constantinople, was taken by Mohammed the Conqueror, after a siege which lasted several years. In 1517 the Ottoman Sultan Selim, known as the “ Inflexible,’ who had already added Syria to the Ottoman Empire, conquered Egypt.

From the Ottoman conyuest in 1517 till the French occupation in the last years of the last century, and the subjugation of the country to the famous adventurer Mehemet Ali, a sketch of whose reign is given later, the history of Egypt is entirely without interest.

CHAPTER IV. TRE MAKING OF EGYPT.

BARE outline of the principal events of Egyptian

history, from the end of Mehemet Ali’s reign in 1848, to the suppression of Arabi’s rebellion in 1882, will suffice tn preserve the thread of the narrative in the sketch of Egyptian history Which has heen attempted in the previous chapters

Mehemct’s successor, Abbas, seems to indicate what biologists call a “* throw-back ” to the type of Oriental des- pot, of which some of the Mameluke sovereigns are ex- amples. All that can be said for him is that he maintained the strictest authority over the army and his officials, and that the public security in Egypt was never greater than during his reign. He was followed by his uncle, Said, who had the same leaning towards Western civilisation as his father, Mehemet, and was, in many respects, an enlightened prince. To him is due, more than to any other sovereign,

‘the great scheme of the maritime canal.

Many important public engineering schemes were car- ried on during this reign, including the partial restoration of the Barrage, the railway from Cairo to Alexandria, the building of the National Museum (since removed to Ghizeh). In spite of the crippled state of the finances, Said Pacha abolished monopolies and equalised the incidence of taxa- tion, and inaugurated numerous other beneficial fiscal reforms. Unfortunately his reign was short, and in 1863 he was succeeded by Ismail, grandson of Mehemet Ali.

55

56 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Ismail, in søte of his passion for European institutions and-his exalted aims for the national development of Egypt, which he attempted to raise to the position of a European Power, was little more than a magnificent failure as a nine- teenth century sovercign. Though he did much for the material progress of the country, and spent enormous sums in what, ın the case of Egypt, can in an ironical sense only be termed “ reproductive public works,” such as roads, bridges, canals, railways, etc., he may be said to have done more harm to his country than any sovereign since the age of the Ptolemics. His prodigality, which will be re- ferred to later, was proverbial, and the fact that the public debt on his accession was three millions, and by the end of his reign had increased to nearly thirty-fold, speaks volumes for the unfitness of Ismail to continue as the sovereign of a country in the last throes of financial em- barrassment, and on the verge of bankruptcy.

“Ismails mistake lay, not in the aim he set before him, but in his manner of t1jing to attain it. No one can doubt that he was right, as the great founder of his dynasty, Mehemet Ali, was right, in striving to bring Egypt into line with European civilisation. ... Ismail failed for lack of patience and judgment. He tried to rush his transformation scene. He wanted, by a stroke of the pen, to turn the most conservative people on earth into a living embodi- ment of all the virtues ot a progressive and enlightened civilisation. He had no patience for the slow conversion of a nation almost as, stolid and immovable as their own Pyramids. Their whole system was to be changed in an instant by a coup de théâtre, with trap- doors, stage-thunder, and a shower of fireworks. It was not so to be done, as Ismail has by this time realised in his meditative seclu- sion at Stambul.!

“ Inexhaustible patience, tact, and discretion are needed before the immemorial vices of Egyptian government and the time-honoured corruption of Egyptian society can be transformed.”

Ing, 1876, the European bondholders, fearing national bankruptcy and repudiation of the innumerable loans, in- 1 This was written before Ismail’s death in 1896.

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 57

duced their respective governments to interfere; and the revenue and expenditure were placed under the control of commissioners appointed by the Great Powers. Ismail, having placed insuperable difficulties in the way of the Financial Commission, the Porte, at the instigation of the Powers, dethroned Ismail, and placed his eldest son, Few- fik, on the throne.

Tewfik was virtually the protégé of the Powders, and this naturally lessened his prestige considerably in the eyes of his subjects. Egypt was, in fact, practically a big estate, with the Great Powers as landlord, and Tewfik as tenant.

The army, from the first, seemed to have got out of hand, and in 1881 the military leaders, combining with the heads of the so-called National movement, whose chief ostensible object was the freeing of Egypt from European influence and control, the disaffection of the people culmi- nated in open rebellion under Arabi, the minister of war. In July, the English fleet went to the assistance of the Khedive by bombarding Alexandria, and in less than two months an English expeditionary force, under Sir Garuch (now Lord) Wolseley, stamped out the rebellion by a crushing defeat of Arabi’s troops at Tel-el-Kebir. This practically marks the end of Egypt as an independent kingdom (except for the nominal allegiance due to the Porte), and from that date to the present the history of Egypt is the history of the development of the country under English influence.

At the very outset, Great Britain, in dealing with Egyptian reforms, had to contend with the serious ex- ternal obstacles due to the peculiar position of the country through its dependence on the Porte, and to the interna- tional tutelage as regards finances to which she was subject. Obviously, with insufficient material the morale of govern- ment would be lessened. Under Ismail the suzerainty of Turkey was limited, to all intents and purposes, to the

58 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

nght to exact an annual tribute of some £700,000. But the accession of Tewfik was the Sultan’s opportunity, and the new firman included one very serious restiiction on the borrowing power of the vassal state The sanction of the Porte was ncccssarv, cqually with that of the Pow- ers, bcfore Lyypt could negotiate any fresh loan

With this nmportant cxccption, most of the powers and privileges of sovereignty could be cxcreiscd by the Khe- dive Leypt was, indecd, fu more hampercd by the Grat Powas, as guudians of tht cawse (treasury), than by the Multan of the Ottoman Ekmpne Another obstacle was the privileges granted to forazncis which are known as the Cipitulitions, of which the most important were the exemption from the jurisdiction of the local courts of justice, md unmunity from taxation These privileges, too, from the time of Mchemct Al, had becn notoriously abused by the lary ind powerful forcign colomes in Egy pt

This immunity from the loc u courts had, during the reign of Ismail, been particularly abused by the army of conces- stonaires Who cxploited Lazy pt at that period Thousands of preposterous claims uscd to be brought agaimst the Gov- ernment by these advcnturc1s,im the consular courts, — the only jurisdiction to which forcigncrs were subject, — who were naturally predisposed in favour of the claimant.

“Indeed Fgypt in the sixties ind seventies was the happy hunt- ing ground of financiers ind promoters of the shadiest description An industrial or commi raal enterprise might o1 might not be profit- able to the persons undeitaking ıt but the man who was lucky enongh to have a case azainst. the Government could regard his fortune ay assured The same ruler, who could with impunity perpetrate acts of gross perfidy and injustice towards his native subjects, was himself mercilessly tricked and plundered by the for-

cga vamps that found such a congenial home upon Egyptian 801

If the personality of Ismail was an essential factor ın the ruin of hus country, ıt needed a whole series of unfortunate conditions to

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 59

render that personality as it actually became R needed a nation of submissive slaves, not only bereft of any vestige of liberal ınstıtu- tions, but devoid of the slightest spark of the spimt of liberty It needed a bureaucracy which 1t would have been hard to equal for its combination of cowardice and corruption It needed the whole gang of swindleis— mostly European — by whom Ismail was gi rounded, and to whom, with his phenomenal incapacity to make a good bargain, — strange ch wacteristic in a man 80 radically disho- est, — he fell an easy prey

“A concession, nominally ashed for to forward some isetul enter- prise 0: busimess, was actually sought simply tu order to find an «xcuse for throwing it up, and then claiming compensation from the Government When the Mixed Tribunal (international courts tstablished to decidi evil actions) were estit hashed, ther wcre t 40,000,000 of outstanding claims made by fureiguera against the Government The extravagant nature of these clatms inay be esti- mated by the fact that n one claim where 30,000 000 franca had been demanded, the Mixed Courts awarded the plaintiff £1,000 Ismail himself was fully alive to the sharp practice of these European ulventurers and concession-hunters — conveitible terms for the most put, — and with a genial cynicism used to rally these European con- cessionaires on then extortionate practices During the interview with a famous concessionaire, Ismail told one vf his suite to close the window, ‘for 1f this gentleman catches cold it will cost me £10,000 ’

“But in Egypt Curopean influence was far too strong to permit of this solution of the financial difhculty, and the Powers embodied a kind of composition with Egypt's creditors by what 1s known as the Law of Liquidation, by which the country was freed from the threatened insolvency The interest on the debt was 1mmensely reduced, and Egypt was able once more to meet her habulities, ‘ but tied hand and foot, unable to move, almost unable to breathe, with- out the consent of Europe ’”

The weak points in the position of Egypt are admirably summed up by Sir Alfred Milner :

«© A Government which cannot legislate for, and cannot tax, the strangers resident in 1ts dominions, — especially when those strangers form, by virtue of their numbers, wealth, and influence, a very important section of the community, —1s lamentably shorn of ite due measure of authority and of respect. But this weakness in the position of Egypt, springing from the Capitulations, has been greatly

60 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

mhaneed by the further disabilities and restrictions which she has

brought upon herself by her unfortunate financial career There 18 no country ın the world to the position of which a policy of profuse expenditure and reckless borrowing was more illsuited Other states which have plunged in the same direction — though perhaps none ever went to such lengths — could at least fall back, in the last resort on the disperate remedy of repudiation ”

But the Egyptian Government was too much under the thumb of the Great Powers to adopt such an ultima ratio. Native creditors might, and indeed were, defrauded with impunity , but European influence was too powerful to per- mit of such a policy in the casc of foreign bondholders.

To return to the condition of Egypt after the collapse of the National Party and thc tall of Arabi Pacha.

With the crushing of Azabi’s rebellion, England’s work in Egypt had only begun, no doubt much to the surprise and disgust of the Enghsh Government, which had inter- fered with no othcr object than to “restore order” But the quick maich of events, and the fearfully rapid spread of popular and religious excitement, were too much even for the most pronounced supporters of a larasez farre attitude, and a policy of simple temporary intervention was neces- sarily converted by the course of events into one of more or less permanent occupation

‘Here was a country, the very centre of the world, the great high- way of nations, — a country which, during the last half century, had been becoming ever more and more an appanage of Europe, — m which thousands of Furopean lives and millions of European capital were at stake, and in which, of all European nations, Great Britain was, by virtue of 1ts enormous direct trade and still more enormous transit trade, the most deeply interested And this country, which the common efforts and sacrifices of all the Powers had just dragged from the verge of bankruptcy, was now threatened, not with bank- ruptey weiMy, but with a reign of blank barbarianism.”

The European Concert seemed as little able as Turkey, Egypt’s nominal protector, to cope with this presaing emer-

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 61

gency; and France, the partner of England, shirked her duties in a somewhat pusillanimous fashion. Consequently Great Britain was morally bound to “bell the cat.” The difficulty of “ restoring order,” or, as it was officially worded, “restoring the authority of the Khedive,” was enormously increased by the fact that not only had the whole machinery of government been upsct by the revolutionaries who called themselves the National Party, but the whole fahrie of gov- ernment had rested on a rotten base. It had no moral or material force at its back, and the personal prestige of the Khedive Tewfik had been seriously impaired.

Two courses were open to the British Government. (1) They could have contented themselves with restoring order externally, and left the responsibilities tor its main- tenance to Turkish troops. Such a policy would not, however, he tolerated in a country which, “ with its large number of European residents and swarms of foreign tour- ists, lives, so to speak, constantly under the eye of civilised mankind.” In short, such a barbarous policy seemed out of the question. (2) If the welfare of Egypt was to be studicd, and the country to be put in the way of governing itself according to the methods of civilised states, then the only course was to be prepared for an occupation of the country till the whole machinery of government could be reconstructed, and peace and justice secured to the Egyp- tians, and native administrators educated in the methods of orderly and honest government. This was the task which England entered upon; and it is this kind of veiled protec- torate which she is still exercising.

This “ veiled protectorate” was of course in the nature of a compromise; but for many reasons annexation, or even an absolute protectorate, was undesirable. The creation of this disguised protectorate was notified to the Great Pow- ers, January 8, 18838, in the memorable despatch, quoted below, of Lord Granville.

62 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

« Although for the present says that document, a British force remains in Egypt for the preservation of public tranquillity, her Majesty s Government are desuous of withdrawing it as soon as the state of the cc untry nd the organisation of proper means for the maint« nance cf the Ahcedinve 8 wthority will admit of it In the meantame the position m which he: Maestys Government are placed tcw urds is Highness im} oses upon them the duty of giving advice with the object of securing thit the order of things to be estal lished shall | cf a satistactory character and possess the ele ments of stability ind pic gress

This constitutes one of the famous “pledges of with- drawal” with which Ln,land 1s twitted ın season and out of season by thc French press In fact, 1n a leading French journal published at Alcxindiia, these pledges are day printed in a prominent position on the front page

In connution with this mcmorible “ Note” may be quoted the important despatch —a corollary of the first

—sent by Lord Salsbury to the English envoy to the Porte in 1887

¢ The Sultinisy1 ssing the Government of Great Britain to name a date for the evi uati ncf Ppyyt mlin that demand he 18 avow edly cncouraged ty on a | 1haps two of the I uropean Powers Her Majesty » Government hive every desire to give him satisfaction upon this point tut they cannet fix even a distant date for evac uation, until they we able to mak yrcvision fcr securing beyond that date thi external and mnt rnal zesce of Fgyzt The object which the Powers of Eurq e hue had in view and which 1s not less the desire of ha Majesty s Government to attain may be generally expressed by the phrase Ihe neutralisation of kgypt but ıt must be neutralisation with an cxce} tion designed to maintain the secur ity and permanence of the whole arrangement Ihe British Gov erninent must retain their mght to guard and uphold the condition of things which will have been Lrought about by the military action and large sacrifice of this country So long as the Government of Egypt m p its position and no disorders mse to ınterferə with t inistration of justice or the action of the executive power, it 16 highly desurable that no soldier belonging to any foreign nation should remain upon the soil of Egypt, except when ıt may be

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 68

necessary to make use of the land-passage from one sea to the other. Her Majesty’s Government would willingly agree that such a stipu- lation should, whenever the evacuation had taken place, apply to English as much as any other troops, but 1t will be necessary to re- strict this provision, as far as England 1s concerned, to periods of tranquillity. England, 1f she spontaneously and willingly evacuates the country, must retam a tieaty nght of iutervention, if at any time either internal peace or external security should be seriously threatened There 13 no danger that a privilege a costly in its character will be used unless the circuinstances 1mp ratively de- mand it”

These documents are such important landmarks in Eng- land’s Egyptian policy, that no excuse need be offered for quoting them at some length

It 13 proverbially easy to be wise after the event; but there is httle doubt that an uncompromising protectorate, albeit merely temporary, would have been the most satis- factory course.

“Jt 14 certain that if we had grasped the Lgyptian nettle boldly, if we had proclaimed from the first oui imtention of exeicising, even for 1 time, that authority which, as a mitter of fact we do exercise, we could have made the situation not only much more endurable for the Egyptians, but much easier for ourse les Had we seen our way to declaring even a tcmporary protectoiate, we might have suspended the ( apitulati ns, 11 we could not have got rid of them altogether, as France his done m Tunis Had we been willing to guarantee the debt, o1 a poition of the debt, not only could the interest have been at once reduced, and the financial burdens of the country enormously lightened, but Lurope would no doubt have agreed to free the Egyptian Government from the network of re- strictions which had been imposed upon it for the protection of the bondholders. In order to have Great Britain as surety for their bond, the creditors would have abandoned with alacrity all their minor safeguards ”

And now we will consider the more important reforms and improvements carried out by England during this: virtual protectorate of the country. They may conven- iently be divided according to the great State depart-

64 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

ments, — the army, finance, publie works, and justice. But in order to understand the significance and value of her great reforms in the internal government of Egypt, it is necessary to have a clear comprehension of the pecu- liar difficulties —a maze of obstacles both external and internal — which England had to contend against; and, therefore, in the preceding pages we have attempted to indicate the peculiar nature of these difficulties.

The delicate diplomatic relations between the Egyptian and English Governments constitute one of the gravest difficulties of England's position as the virtual protector and guardian of Egypt; and the presence of an English army of occupation n an autonomous province of a friendly Power, —{or that 1s the nominal relation of Egypt to Turkey, — 18 not the least of these difficulties.

The British troops have, of course, no soit of status in the country. They are not the soldiers of the Khedive, nor foreign soldiers mvited by the Khedive. They are not the soldiers of the protecting Power, since there is in theory no protectin. Powgr. In theory their presence is an acci- dent. and their character that of simple visitors. At the present moment they are no longer, from the military point of view, of vital importance, for their numbers have been repeatedly reduced; and for several years past they have not exceeded, and do not now exceed, three thousand men. It is true that thcir presence relieves a certain portion of the Egyptian army from duties it would other- wise have to perform, and that if the British troops were altogether withdrawn, the number of Egyptian soldicrs might have to be somewhat increased. But its value as part of the defensive forces of the country does not, of course, constitute the real importance and meaning of the British amy of occupation. It is as the outward and

‘ This was written in 1892 Since that date the numbers have been increased, and the full strength of the army is now nearer four than three thousand.

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 65

visible sign of the predominance of British influence, of the special interest taken by Great Britain in the affairs of Egypt, that this army is such an importan§ element in the present situation. ts moral effect is dt of all proportion to its actual strength. 2

The most pressing of all the reforms so imperatively needed in Egypt was the remodelling and the rearganisation of the discredited and distinctly non-effective Egyptian army. The first step was simple enough, viz., to get md of the existing army. This was done by the historic Decree of December, 1882, —“ The Egyptian Army is disbanded.” But Sir Evelyn Wood, to whom the task of creating a new «ny was intrusted, did not despair ot converting the fellah into a useful fighting machine; and his taith in what, atter the miserable show the native troops had made in the recent rebellion, looked like very poor material, has in the last campaign been thoroughly justified.

The fcllabcen are no doubt wanting in initiative power and individuality, but when intelligently le? they fight well. In fact, as is the case with Turkish soldicrs, good leadership is simply everything in the ficld. Moreover, the Egyptian soldiers are not wanting in the useful quality of insensibility to danger, which is a tolerable substitute for true courage.

Hitherto, not only had the native soldiers been badly led in battle, but they were constantly defrauded of their pay, and treated with harshness and cruelty by their ofi- cers. Now, under the new régime, they are properly fed and clothed, and, though discipline is strict, they are treated as sentient beings by the new English officers. Moreover, they are properly looked after when ill: under the old régime a military hospital did not exist. Perhaps the conduct of the English officers, when cholera wea raging in 1896, did more Phan anything else to gain the confidence and respect of the new army. The twenty or

66 THE CITi’ OF THE CALIPHS

thirty “accursed’ Christians nursed these men day and night, and never shrank from doing thc most menial offices for them

The British officers, as Mr Moberly Bell aptly remarks, are also 1n educitional force of immense value sıx thou sand nativcs tauzht obedicncce and discipline, and en- couraged to tike 1 pride in themsclycs and theu work, are a solid vain to Tgypt Lhe icsult ıs, that, on one occiwsion when siy soldic1s were required for the Soudan, —formeily 1¢zarded by the {cllahs as a place of exile for life, — the whole | ittalion voluntecred

While a nate mmy was all very well, ıt required to be “stiffened ’ by I nghsh troops Besides, 1t was obvious that without th moral support afforded by the piıesence of an Enghsh army of occupition 1t would be hopelcss to carry out iny | wtine projects oft reform

Those responsible for the 1cform im the army had, of cours’, within wide limits, a free hand Very difterent was the cise of those responsible for placing on a sound basis the Egyptian financcs From the outset they were met by the fact that the 1 picsentatives of the Powcrs on the Commupsion of the azsse rezardcd the Egyptian finan- qial idministration as the mere bailiff of the bondholders, and were inchncd to starve the public seivices for their bhencht The cardinal principle of Lyzyptian finance 1m- volvcd, in fact, a perpetual struggle between the carsse and the Govcrnment Ihe terest on the debt being the first charge on the casse, all the revenue 1s paid first to the treasury, but the Government can draw upon any surplus up to the limit of the “authorised” annual eapenditure

So fettered was Egypt by the Powers in financial mat- ters, t nothing in the nature of a vamable budget wasg@lGwcd =A certain fixed sum (about six millions) 18 allowed her annually for all the expenses of govermment. If, however, there still remains a surplus in the cassee

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 67

after the interest on the debt and the authorised expendi- ture have been met, half goes to the reduction of the debt, and half to the Government In the event of there beng no surplus, and an extra sum 18 yet required by the Gov- ernment fur a public work of undoubted utility, it must 1aise double that sum fiom the taxpayers, because of the stiingent rules which imsist on half of all the revenue (after interest and authorised expenditure are paid) bemg devoted to the reduction ot the dcbt

This, in a nutshell, was thc condition of Egvpt’s fmancial position when England entered upon the task of bringing the revenue and. the expenditure into a sta of stable cquiibrium The results have c\ceeded thc most sanguine cxpectations The chicf teaturcs of the new fiscal policy ut a moire Cquitable distiibution of the taxes, the suppres- sion of the corvée (the forced labour of the peasants for the diedging and repair of the canals, the most grievous of all the burdens of the people), greater outlay on repro- ductive works, and less capenditure on “non-effective” objects All this has been accomplished without any incrcase in the annual expenditure, and the increase in the revenue, which has been remarkably uniform and steady since 1886 to the present year, has been concurrent with lightened taxation This has been possible, owing to the careful economy in the admunistiation and improved meth- ods of collection Under Ismail an enormous proportion of the taxes, actually wiung from the overburdened fel- laheen, never reached the treasury at all, but was absorbed by the officials and the farmers of the taxes.

“ Two great factors have combined to bring about the financial recuperation of Egypt, — the prevention of waste on the part of the administration, and the development of the productive powers of the country As far as the prevention of waste 1s concerned, the first essential was a proper system of accounts Accounts are the foun- dation of finance You may have good accounts and a bad financial administration, but you cannot have good finance with bad accounts.

68 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

There was nothing more fatal in the financial chaos of the days of Ismail than the manner in which the private property of the Khe- dive was jumbled up with the property of the State. This mischiev- ous confusion was put an end to when Ismail’s vast estates were aurrendered ty his cieditors, and a regular civil list substituted for the multifarious :evenues which at one time flowed into the coffers

of the sovereign of Egy pt.”

The creation of a solvent Egypt has, indeed, been mainly the work of Sir Edgar Vincent and his successors in the office of financial adviser to the Khedive. This reëstablish- ment of solvency is directly traceable to increased produc- tion.

The material wealth of Egypt is far from being exhausted ; and if proper measures are taken to economise her poten- tial productiveness, there is no reason why, in less than a generation, she should not attain “a degree of prosperity ag undreamt of now, as her present position of solvency was undreamt of only ten years ago.”

It is all a question of water. The cultivable area might be enormously extended if the water supply, which for many months of the year is practically unlimited, could be properly utilised on a large scale by means of canals and reservoirs.

From the time of the Caliphs downwards, this truth seems to have been recognised hy the more enlightened Egyptian sovercigns and statesmen. It was the Caliph Omar who gave the following advice to his viceroy: “ Be- ware of money-lendcrs, and devote one-third of thy income to making canals.” Had Ismail taken this counsel of per- fection to heart, the regeneration of Egypt need not have been left to Great Britain and the other Great Powers.

Except in abnormal cases, the Egyptian cultivator can affor pay his taxes if he receives a proper supply of water for his crops. From time immemorial, Egyptian law has recognised the intimate connection between land tax

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 69

and water supply. The land which in any given year gets no water, is for that year legally exempt from all taxation whatever. As soon as it gefs water its liability is established. But it is evident that the mere fact of receiving some water, though it may set up the liability of the cultivator to pay, does not neceggarily insure his ca- pacity to do so. In order to insure that, he wust get hig water in proper quantities and at the proper times, But this is just what, in thousands of instances, he could not get, as long as the irrigation system remained in that state of unutterable neglect and confusion into which it had fallen, in the period preceding the British occupation.

Of the long catalogue of beneficent measures by which the tax-paying power of the Egyptian people has been in- Cicased, the greatest and most essential is the reform of the irrigation system.

It would not be easy to exaggerate the enormous impor- tance of irrigation in Egypt. An adequate and sound sys- tem of irrigation implies, in fact, not only its commercial and agricultural prosperity, but its very existence as a civilised and solvent State.

In many respects, as we have shown, Egypt is a unique country, but only Government officials are able to realise fully the deep significance of Herodvtus’s epigram, which attempts to sum up the one great feature of this Land of Paradox” in the pregnant aphorism, “ Egypt is the gift of the Nile.” A

To understand even the very A B C of the Egyptian system of agriculture, two great facts must be borne: in mind. The first is that the country is watered, not by rain, but by the river. In Upper Egypt rain practically never falls. Even in Lower Egypt it is a negligible quan- tity. The second great fact is that the river is not only the irrigator, but the fertiliser of the soil. The fine, red- dish-brown mud, which the Blue Nile washes down from

70 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

the volcanic plateaus of Abyssinia, mixed with organic mat- ter from the swamp icgion of the White Nile, does more than manure can do for the annul renovation of the land

Having grasped these csascntial facts, we are able to understand the 1eason of there boimy two systems of agri cultmein Leypt In Upper Lzypt the nitual mundation 1s not supplemented by 1 subsidi uy system of 11112at1on canals (except the flood canals) and 1¢sc1vois, and the mcthods arc absolutely the same as those sculptured on the walls of Phurone temples After the spring harvest, the land Jay idk till the next imundation This primeval 3) stem answercd, no doubt, for ccre als but not for cotton and sugar, two of the most profitable of the carth s products for which the Lzyptian climite 19 admniwbly sutcd But perennial irrigation 14 resci ved for these cops, and they must be wat- cred, not diowncd

The important distinction between the two kinds of un gation must Uwiys be borne in mind In the Upper Nile Valley, the win of the cultiv itor 19 to cover 1s much land as possible with the Nile water ind its deposit of fertilising mud In the moe scientilic fuming of the Delta, the efloits of the cultiy itor were mainly confined to controlling the Nile mundition — to keep it way during high flood, and to retain as much as possible of the wate: during the period of low Nile To Mehemet Ali is due the credit of inventing this system of perenmiil urigation and cncourag ing the cultivation of those more valuable crops, cotton and sugar, in the Delta, which has given Egypt 1 high position in the markets of thc world for these commodities But Mehemct Ali’s scientific methods were too advanced for the times, and depended for success upon the continuous persona}, supervision of Ins French engineers This was not @*¢h, and local prejudices being against these “new

fangled notions,” Mehemet’s admirable conception was a failure

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 71

Of the specific works of reform in this department, the Barrage was one of the most important. This great dam, however, forms the subject of a separate chapter.

Irrigation on the Delta has now been put on a proper footing. There is a complete network of main and subsidi- ary canals designed on scientific principles, with the Bar- rage as the starting-point.

(treat importance has also been yiven, as will be seen from the following extract from Lord Cromer’s last report (February, 1897), to the impoitant work ot drainage .

“Including the cost of pumping out Lake Mareotis, about £52,000 Wis spent upon drainage works in 1596.) For this sum 130 kilome- t} sol new drains were dug The iniigation service is now extending the drainage system into the higher aud inore highly cultivated tracts where water 1s abundant, and where the soul would in time deteriorate uf drains were not constructed Although about £500,000 have alrcady been spent on drains in Lower Egypt, a further large expenditure of money will be required before it can be said that the drainage system 13 complete

“It may sutely be asserted that funds could hardly be applied to a more necessary work, or to one which would bring im a quicker turn on the capital expended In Egypt, exhinsted soi) recovers its productive power very rapidly Whenever a drain is dug, the Ie nefit, caused 19 quickly apparent in the shape of increased produce.

“For some years past, the Department of Public Works has devoted all 1ts available credits to the umprovement of the diamnage system In 1597 nearly all the budget allotment for new works will be spent on those specially connected with the removal of the water from the subsoil

“ For ın every part of the country drainage projects are in course of preparation. Lf, however, in order to complete the system of drainage, the Government rehes wholly upon such sums as can be grauted annually out of the resources at its disposal, a long time must elapse before the work ıs completed Advantage has therefore been taken of the fact that large sums of money are held in the special Reserve Fund, to apply to the Commissioners of the Debt for a grant of £250,000 to be spent on drainage in 1897. I am glad to be able to report that the Commussioners have complied with this request.” -

72 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Very different in character have been the irrigation oper- ations in Upper Egypt, where reservoirs take the place of canals. The chief work here has been the reclamation of the Sharaki districts. This is the term given to lands which, owing to their receiving no water, are relieved of all taxation. Obviously, few public works could be more directly and more immediately remunerative to the State than this. For instance, in the year of low Nile, £300,000 of taxes had to be abandoned. ?

What is impcratively required in the Upper Nile Valley is not a great dam like the Barrage, but a large reservoir for retaining the superfluous flood-water for distribution during the summer. This ueed is admitted on all hands, but the burning question of Egyptian irrigation was for many years narrowed tv the comparative merits of the pro- posed sites. As, however, Assouan has now been definitely selected by the Government for the site of this reservoir, it is unnecessary to discuss the rival projects for a storage reservoir at Wady Halta, Kalabsheh, or Wady Rayan in the Fayyum. It gocs without saying, that, with an increased supply of water, the amount of crops could be enormously increased in the Delta and Upper Egypt. But while in Lower Egypt the increase would be in additional reclaimed land, in Upper Egypt, where the cultivated area cannot be extended, increased cultivation simply means summer as well as winter crops.

xperts estimate that a reservoir capable of storing about two thousand millions cubic metres a year, and providing one hundred thousand acres with summer irrigation, would add between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000 annually to the produce of the country; and as Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff’s estimate of the cost is not more than £2,600,000, the profit, is capital would obviously be enormous.

The English engineers, mostly trained in the Indian

‘In average seasons the remission amounts to about £50,000.

THE MAKING OF EGYPT 78

Public Works Department, did not fall into the error of attempting to carry out the various unde: takings connected with irmgation from the headquarters at Cano Personal supervision was the key-note of the pohcy of the new department The country was divided ito five circles of irrigation (three in the Delta, and two in Upper Egypt), of which four were intiusted to the newcomers from Indi. Ths plan of locahsıng the engineering talent, which it had been found desirable to import mto the coun- try proved a complete success

Viewed as a whole there cin It no yuestion that the Irngation D j artment 18 of all the Lranches of the Lgyptian service managed ty British chicfs, the one upon which from first to last 1t has been possible to look wrth the mest unmixed ynde With men of this vai re stationed im every quarter of the country seeing with their wh eyes and intrusted with a wid discretion to act to the best of then Judgment, the work of improvement marched 1s rapidly as the hrited amount of money at the disposil of the Irngation Service would permit W hile a great deıl was left to the initiative of the individu il inspectors and the metho is of each of them presented onsiderable diversity there was still a general harmony of purpose running through then work

Nothing, perhaps, illustrates more forcibly the confidence the natives have in the engineers than an incident quoted by Sur Alfred Milnes in his invaluable study of modern Kgvpt He had asked a native statesman, who was bit- tirly opposed to the English occupation, what Egypt would do without the engineers The reply was to the effect that the sooner England retired the better, but that thé engineers would certainly not he allowed to go.

The engineer in the remote country district is, indeed, not only an indispensable official, but may be regarded as a useful educational and civilismg force. “The people recognise in him the great benefactor of their district, and, with a childlike simplicity, they turn to Him for help and counsel even an concerns the least related to his actual functions.”

74 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

The following amusing anecdote illustrates this attitude

of the fellaheen towards these offiuials

In one year of exceptionally low Nile, a certam district was threaten d with a total failure of the crops, owing to the canal bcinz too low to umgate the fields A cry of despair arosi fiom thc whole populace, who, as usual, ım- plored the ud of onc of thi Lnglish inspec tors of irigation who happencd to be on the spot Ths official promptly dctermincd to throw 1 tempor uy dam across the canal The idea was i bold onc Thc time was short The canal was large, and though lower thin usual, it was still carry ing a great body of water at a considerable velocity Of course no peparnitions had bcen maide for a work the neccssity for which hid never been contemplated Labour, at any rate, was lorthcuming im any quantity, tor thi pco- ple, who siw stuvition stuime them in the fau, necded no compulsion to jom gladly m any entaiprnse which afforded tham vcn the remotest chance of 1chef So the inspector hastily got tozctha: the best matal within reach Hi brought hs led on to the canal bank, and did not lcave thi seene of operations, mght or day, tall the work was fimshed And the plan succeeded To the surprise of all, the dam was somehow or other made strong cnough to resist the current The water was raised to the requucd lcvel, and the land was cftectually flooded. The joy and thc giatitude of the people knew no bounds. It was decided to offer thanksgivings in the mosque of the chief town of the district, and the event was considered of such general importance that evcn that exalted functionary the Minister of Pubhc Works, himself made a special point of attending the ceremony

In the Department of Justice and Police —using the word “Ju ’ m its narrow but conventional sense as meanmg all that appertains to courts of law — less progress has been made towards reform than in other State departments.

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 75

And yet there is no doubt that in the whole administrative field of Egypt, in no department is the cardinal principle which underlies all British intervention, -— viz., not merely governing, but teaching the Egyptians how to govern them- selves, — more necessary to be kept in view. One reason tor the slow development of law and justice is, that thia is a branch of government which has been less under the influence of the English. In fact, we were late in the field. No effective interference took place till about 1889, when Sir John Scott was appointed with the title of Judicial Adviser to the Khedive, who virtually undertook the fuuc- tions of minister, though there was a native statesman bear- mg that title.

There is not one judicial system in Egypt, but four. There is the old Koranic system, worked by the Mehken- nehs, or courts of the religious law, which are now mainly confined to dealing with the personal status of Mohamme- dans. There is the system of the mixed courts, which deals with civil actions between foreigners of different nationalities, or between foreigners and natives, and, in a small degree, with the criminal offences of foreigners. There is the system, or no system, of the consular courts, which deals with the great body of foreign crime. Finally, there is the system of the new native courts, which deals with civil actions between natives, or crimes committed by them. Of all these, it is only the native courts which the English have taken in hand, and that not till within the last few years.

The native courts are, in one sense, though ranking only as courts of first instance, the most important of all as affecting the greatest number of people; but the English were, at first, chary of doing more than giving advice. The original personnel of the native court was very unsatis- factory, and jobbing and nepotism was rife. Mr. Scott entered upon the delicate work of reform in a judicious

1 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

and moderate spirit. He wisely contented hintself with modifying the judicial system without radically altering

the procedure and machinery of the law.

By a series of important changes of detail Sir John has modified the judicial system which he found existing, and rendered it vastly more suitable to the conditions of the country; but he has never attempted to revolutionise it. No doubt, if he had the work to do de novo, he would prefer something more like the Indian system, which experience has proved to be so well suited to the wants of a backward country, where most of the litigants are poor, and most of the cases simple. He recognised, how- ever, that the Egyptian codes and procedure, such as he found them, were the only ones which the native judicial body knew how to work, or to which the people were accustomed. He therefore wisely decided not radically to alter the actual administration of justice, but simply to improve it in the points where it was most imperfect.

It is curious that, at first, the chief fault in the admin- istration of Justice by these lower courts was the dilatori- ness of the proceedings. Now, according to the last report of the Judicial Adviser to the Khedive, the chief defect of these courts was the hasty manner in which the actions were tried, and the old charge that “ Justice long delayed is no justice,” certainly cannot now be brought against the native tribunals. The natural result of this tendency to haste on the part of the judges, who must, however, be given full credit fur the zeal in which they set their faces against arrears of cases, is to give an unnecessary amount of work to the courts of appeal. Good authorities are, however, of opinion that, taken collectively, the native tribunals give every sign of working admirably, with a judicious leaven of Euro judges.

In the organisation of the police mistakes have avow- edly been made by the English officers responsible for the

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. TT

reconstruction, owing mainly to a lack of continuity in the policy of reconstruction and reorganisation. The ‘first chief, Gen. Valentine Baker, who was sent out to com- mand the police soon after the English occupatiogy though an admirable cavalry officer, was totally unfitted for the office of inspector-general of police. Besides, he started on a wrong tack. “His whole management of the police was influenced, from the first, by the conviction .that they would sooner or later be converted into a mulitary reserve.”

After General Baker’s death, Mr. Chfford Lioyd tried Ins hand at: the work of police oiganisation. Under this energetic reformer, the police were made an independent body, and free from the control of the mudirs (governors of provinces). This proved a short-sighted policy, and lessened the prestige of these provincial authoritics, on whom the whole internal administiation of their respec- tive provinces depended. Ultimately, through the efforts of Nubas Pacha, a compromise was arrived at, which is still in force.

The police of each province, as matters are now ar- ranged, are under the authority of the mudir; but, on the other hand, his orders must be given to them through their own local officers. He has no power of interference with the discipline and organisation of the force, nor can he make use of it except for the legitimate purposes of- maintaining order and repressing crime. If he has causé of complaint against the conduct of the police, his remedy hes in an appeal to the mimstry of the interior, which, through the inspector-general at headquarters, deals with the case. This is as it should be; but, of course, the success of the system depends on a spirit of give and take on both sides, and on friendly relations between the mudirs and the chiefs of the police.

In the Department of the Interior important reforms

78 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

in the maintenance of public security, in addition to the police force, have been effected since the establishment f a responsible English official, who bears the title of Adviser on Internal Affairs. Mr. J. L. Gorst, appointed n 1894, was the first to occupy this important post; and e is still the virtual head of the Department of the nterior, though a native statesman is the titular chief. Mhe principal work has been the reorganisation of the vil- age watchmen (ghaffirs), who serye as a supplementary wlice force in the country districts. This unwieldy body vas much reduced in numbers, but put into a state of ficiency, and placed under the control of the respective mdahs, or village sheiks.

These omdahs were answerable to the mamurs, or gov- nors of districts, and the latter were under the control 2 the mudirs, who, in turn, were responsible to the Minis- er of the Interior. Thus a regular series of authorities was effected in the machinery of government, by which the ventral authority in Cairo was in touch with the fellahs in the remotest district of the Upper Nile Valley.

The above is an epitome of the developmerit and results of the more important reforms in the administration of Egypt under British influence; but without wearying my readers with a catalugue of reforms suggesting a diluted Blue Book, it will be well to note briefly a few more im- provements in other hranches of the public services.

In the matter of sanitation and sanitary reform, the attention of the Egyptian Government has only of late years — prompted, doubtless, by the serious epidemics of cholera in 1883 and 1896 — been directed to the pressing need of reform in matters affecting the public health; and till recently the Department of Public Health remained one gof@the least satisfactory in the public service. This is largely due, no doubt, to the paucity of the funds avail- able for sanitary reform on a large scale. The department

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 719

was, in short, for many years after its establishment in 1885, shelved and starved. This is virtually admitted by Lord Cromer in his report for 1897 :

“Tt 1s, however, the misfortune that the sums of money required to execute the very necessary retorms proposed by Rogers Pacha the head of the Health Department, are large During the fourteen years which have elapsed since the British occupation: of the coun- try commenced, Egyptian finance has passed through several dir- tinct phwes During the fist pernod, which lasted from 1682 to the close of 1886, there could be no question either of hscal reform, cr of increasing eapenditwe sive op sich subiecta w irrigation, which were distinctly and dicetly remuneritive. The aggregate deficits of these years amounted to £2,751,000 Th whole atten- tun of the Government was during this period dicted to the maintenance of financial equiiinium When at list a surplus was btained, fiscal relef was, very wisely in my opinion, allowed to tike precedence of imereased expenditure, ven on the most neces- siry objects During the neat period, which may be said to have iisted till 1804, large reductions were made 1n indirect taxation, and direct taxes to the extent of about £1 000,000 wore remitted

It is only since 1894 that the Lgyptian Government has been tble to turn its attention seriously to those numerous reforms which involy¢ increased eapenditure on any consideiable scale Amongst the objects which most nearly concern the general weltare of Egy pt, it cannot be doubted that the 1econquest of some portion, at all cyvents of the Soudan, takes avery high place It ıs to the accom- phshment of this object that the attention ot the Egyptian Govern- ment must, for the tune being, be mainly directed

“Moie than this, the devi lopment of the system of irrigation should not be long delayed, more especially as the returns to be obtained from money spent on 1r1igation will certainly in the end provide funds for expenditure 1n other directions ‘

‘No government, and certainly not the semu-internationalised government of Egypt, can afford to embark at once and at the same moment 1n a numbe: of expensive and difficult operations. I do not doubt that the day of the Egyptian sanitary reformer will come, but under the circumstances to which I alluded above, I fear, though I say it with regret, that some little while must yet elapse before the question of umproved samtation in Egypt can be taken Seriously in hand.”

30 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

A great deal must be allowed for the ingrained hor-

ribly unsanitary habits of the natives Though person ally clean and not averse to the use of water, —1ın fact, therr religion enjoins frequent and regular ablutron, — the huts of the fellahucn ue indesciibably filthy The canals, which ın thc remote distiicts are the only source of water, are subject to yay kind of pollution Near most villages there arc lerkas, oi stagnant ponds, which are as malar ous as they are malodorous Lyen in the principal cities thec 18 ibsolutely no system of drunage In the case of Cairo, as will he shown latei, this reproach will, however, soon be removed In short, the observant traveller only wondi rs that thi awful cholera cpidemic of last year 18 not 1epeatcd annually Ihen besides, there arc special diffi culties in addition to the 1.no1 ince and apathy and unsani tary customs of the pcoplc, which the samtary 1efor1mer has to confi mt Ilhese uc the religious prejudices of the Mos- lems The mosques ae the prmneipal offenders against the laws of health, ind the latrines attached to every one of there buildinss uc often centics of infection Injudi- cious inteifucnce might easily excite 1 fanatical oppo sition, Which would stand seriously in the way of all sanitary <form Howcver, the judicious hindling of this sanitary work by Rozers Pacha icsulted im placing, in one year (1896) ovcr one hundted and fifty mosques in a proper sanitary condition

In connection with this subject some reference should be made to the cholera epidemic of last year, already referred to The following extracts from Rogers Pacha’s Report are instruct ve °

“There can be httle doubt that the disease was originally intro- ab hal August or September 1895 by pilgrims returning from Me It was at first limited to sporadic cases which did not attract attention By the first of February the disease was conr pletely stamped out in the provinces

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 81

“ Unfortunately, Alexandria had become infected on the 28th of” December In the month of January, 1896, twenty-one cases, and in February forty-eight cases, occurred 1n that town In April the number of cases once more rose to fifty and in May the disease sumed an epidemic form in the town Cases imported from Alex

andi11 soon begin to occur all over the country, ud by the mudd’ cf Miy it was evident that 2 general infection was immanent

From thc 1st of May to the 22d of October, 703 villages were

infected In all these villages inspectie n wis carried out, g-nerally by one of the four very capable Fnghsh inspectors whe were avail alle for provincial work In cach village a cholera hospital was eat iblished

By the end of October the disease had jy ractically lisapy. ared

Dining the winter epidemic 1 016 deaths were recorded From the Ist of April to the 31st ot October the number of deaths was 1 087 making a total of 13 10> deaths out ot 21,693 cases notihed or detected

Ihe 1educed mort ity in 1890-6 as comp red to 1833 18 due to

two causes, namely, (1) to thi fict that in the imterval of thirteen years 1 great advance his been made in medu al sese nce, with the Iepult that the proper methods tor uresting the ) ropagation of ch ner. are now more tully understood than was formerly the case, (~) to the fact that the Medical and Sanitary Departments of the keyptian Government are now far bette: organised than was the ase m 1883

The scheme for a thorough system of diamage for Cairo shows that the revival of interest im sanitation 1s begin- ning to take a practical form

‘This 1s a tremendous undertaking, estimated to cost at least £500,000 The necessity has long been recognised but it has been put off from year to year, owing to want of money, — not eo much absolute want of money, as want of power to apply money that actu- ally existed to the desired object awmg Wilp usual and ten-tımes explained necessity of obtaining the cofiseas qf the Powers, or, more properly, the consent of Fiance, for none of the others made any difhculty France was finally appeased last year by the appoint- ment of an International Commussion to examine the various com- peting schemes This Commussion, composed of an Englishmgn, 2 Frenchman, and a German, sat last winter, and ended by propos- ing a scheme of its own, for which preliminary investigations are at

82 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

present being made So ın two or three years we may hope to see Cairo drained in which case that city, or at any rate the European quarter of it will ve1y likely be one of the healthiest places of residence 1n the world

It may 1easonably be expected that this important sani tary reform will have sume effcct .n reducing the deplor- able high death-rate of Cairo, — forty-s1% per one thousand, which 1 actuilly double that of many European capi- tals, the avc.age dcath-1ate of Paris being twenty-thiee, and London nineteen, per one thousand It must, how- evcr, be 10membeicd that this abnoimally heavy bill of mortality is to some cxtcnt factitious For Cano i re- gardcd by the Exyptians in the hght of a sacred city, and they arc accustomed to crowd into it from the villages of the Delta, when thcy feel then cnd approaching, simply to die in Cairo

Till the last few years, the educational system seemed httle affected by the spnat of 1cfo1m which was influencing Egypt and its nitionil institutions No dcpartment has borne richer fruit of late But though thcre has lately been a rcmarkable increase im the number of schools and scholars, only a small mimonity of the latter belong to the Mohammedan religion

Previous to 1884, the few Government schools were also boycotted by paients of the dominant faith, the religious influence of the Ulcmas, who controlled the [l-Azhar University and the innumerable schools attached to the mosques, being too strong to be combated The famous K]-Azha: Univeisity — “a petrified umiversity, which rests hke a blight upon the religious and intellectual hfe of the edintry ” —-has moulded all the religious training m

r

a better class of the Mohammedans are now, however, beginming to tolerate the Government foundations; and there are now nearly eight thousand scholars in the pri-

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 88

mary schools, while there are about fifteen hundred in the secondary schools and the eight higher professional schools or technical colleges (Law, Military, Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture, etc. ).

Hitherto, the educational vote has made a poor show in the Egyptian budget, and some critics maintain that edu- cation is the “ Cinderella” among the Egyptian depart- ments of state. This, no doubt, will be rectified in future budgets. It must of course be remembered that —

«People must hve before they can h taught. Famine is worse than ignorance. What the Egyptian Government bad to fight for, S14 Ol Deven years ago, was the very existence of the people. Essen- tial as education 1s, the provision ot education 1s not suh a primary duty of government as the defence of personal property, the mainte- vance of justice, or, in a country hke Egypt where human hfe dé pends upon public works, the careful preservation of these works upon which life depends. And, in the next place, ıt would have boen no use simply to augment the budget of the Education Depart- m nt, 60 long as the schools were being conducted on unintelligent. methods.”

To come to a higher form of public education, — the art of government,— ıt cannot be said that much progress has been made in developing representative institutions in the machinery of government. It is true that there is a Leg- lative Council, but its powers are ineonsiderable, being mainly confined to proposing amendments to proposed laws affecting the administration. As the Council cannot initiate legislation, and as the Ministry need not accept the amend- ments, the Legislative Councils are not of great importance in the body politic.

Then there is the General Assembly, — which is gimply the Council, enlarged by a popular element. This has one important function, for no new taxes can be imposed with- out its consent. As, however, this assembly only meets once every two years, it cannot play a very considerable part in Egyptian politics.

84 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

The time, ın fact, hag not yet come for applying the prin- ciple of representatise government, in any gieat degree, to the national aftairs of Egypt lt would be sounder policy to begin by introducing 1t nto the management of local business, and even then tentatively and with caution

The only local 1¢presentatwe institution haying adminis- trative powers, which at present exists, 1s the municipality of Alcxandna That city, by virtue of its large European population, has probably moire of the elements requisite for the success of local slf-govcrnment than any other town in Egypt On the other hand, the mixtuic of Eu opeans and natives in this municipality gives rise to certain special difhculties

The attitude of England im this pohcy of Egy ptiin inter- vention, sinc¢ the Ai abi revolt, 1s simple and comprehensive It was natural that the British Government should suppose that thai tash, when Fiance, m 1882, thiew all responsibil ity for Egypt on thai hands, was a simple one, namely, to crush a milituy rising = Only actual cxperience taught England that the reblon was a very small matter, and that the real ditheulty lay ın the utter rottenness of the whole iabiic of govcinment Naturally, then, the pledges England made, bang based on a total misappiehension, were impossible of fulfilment But to thi spint of these pledges England has been faithful It 15 indisputable that England has derived no pecunity or othe: benefit from her occupation of Egypt Asa matte: of fact, among the foreign employees in the Egyptian avl service there are nearly twice as many of Fiench o1 Italian nationality as of Enghsh In 1895, for instance, there were 348 Itahans, 826 French, and 174 English in the Khedive’s service

No nation w able to say that any legitimate right or priyal@yc which it once possegsed ın Egypt has been in- frmged by any action ot England. Such mght or priv- ilege remains absolutely untouched, even where it would be

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 85

just and reasonable that it should be modified And, on the other hand, what European people, having any interests in Egypt, has not benefited by the fact that that country has heen preserved from disorder and restored to prosperity ? That this 1s the true view of the character of British policy 15 shown by the willing acquiescence, if not the unspoken approval, ot the majority of civilised nations.

As for the attitude of the French Government, it 18 nat- ural enough that France should feel some resentment at Knglind holding the position in Egypt, among al! Buropean nations, that she herself once held, and foohahly resigned when in 1882, she slurked at the last moment, and left kingland to “ face the music’’ alone Then m 1887, at the time of the Constantinople Conference, 1t was krance who put obstacles in the way of the withdrawal of England In short, logically, France 1s mainly answcrable for the British cuntinu d occupation in Egypt But yet 1t must be allowed that Fiance has many 1casons for being hurt and disap- pointed, conside:ing the enormous value of her services to gy pt in the past

It wis Frince who sup orted I gypt in her struggle for nde- pendence from Turkey when all the othe: Poweis were against her, ind when by this opposition they prevented that independence from lecoming complete it wis to France that Mehemet Alh turned for ud ın his attempt to civilise l zyyt as he understood the meaning f crvihsation lor something lhe half a century French lawyers, Trench engineeis, krench men of learning weic engaged in doing their best — often under most discouraging circumstances — to deluge i gypt with the fruits of European culture

‘In short Frenchmen may claim to have been the pioneers of kuropean influence Whatever Egypt borrowed from Europe, whether in the material or imtellectual sphere, came to bèr firat through French channels Her upper classes, 1f educated at all, were educated by Frenchmen in French ideas French even became an official language, side by side with Arabic To this day, the English in the Egyptian service write official letters to one another in haltang French ”

86 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Then there is the’Canal. This stupendous work is of course purely French in conception and execution, and was (see a later chapter) undertaken in face of the continued and bitter hostility of England. There is, then, some excuse for Fiance making all the capital she can out of the unfortunate engagements, or “pledges,” of England, pub- lished and reiterated urbi et orbi, in 1883 and 1887.

It 1s necessary , however, to look at the other side of the question. France has, no doubt, been of great service to this erstwhile 6 distressful countiy;” but her services are counte: balanced by her tendcney to exploit and make money out of Egypt, which seems to have been a cardinal principle of her Egyptian polie; , from the death of Mehemet Ali to 1882.

“In the days prior to the establishnic ut of the Mixed Tribunals, — which France resisted with all her night,—French adventurers exploited Egypt in the most meiciless fashion, and they frequently enjoyed the support of French diplomacy in then nefarious game. No Great Power has clung with such tenacity as Prance to all the advantages, however indefensible and galling, bestowed on its sub- jecta by the Capitulations She has shown no consideration for the weakness of Egypt She has never hesitated to use her ummense superiority of power to push the imtercests of French traders, French contractors, and French financiers In the years immediately pre- ceding the Arabist ievolution, when England and Trance were acting i concert in the Lgyptian affais, it was France who was for getting the last pound of flesh ont of the Egyptian debtor It was England who was ın favour of showing some consideration for the people of Egypt, and not ot treating the question purely as one of pounds, shillings, and pence.”

The withdrawal of England on the understanding that France should never occupy the country — if such a pledge could be enforced, for circumstances might easily arise in whig France would be wrong to keep this pledge — has been ‘suggested as one way out of the Egyptian difficulty. A settlement of this vexed international question by means

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 87

of such a self-denying ordinance on the part of France and England is not likely to be advantageous, or even anything but a temporary shelving of the difficulty.

«Can any man,” says an old resident, who has held high office mn the Egyptian civil service, and had peculiar opportunities for obsers- ing and judging impattially the result, of English influence m Egypt, “knowing the social and political condition òf the country, maintain with confidence that f Fgypt were left to herself to-meor row favouritism and corruption would not once more ratse ther heads that justice would not once more be venal, that the admonistration would not once more gradually fall bach into disorder, and that, as t cons quence of such disorder, tinaneial equilipnam would not iam be jeopardised? And then should we not have the old story the embarrassment of the treasury, causing the wapesershinent of the peopl — such impove mshment leading tu diseontent aad agitation ; that agitation directed not only against the Government, but, under the inspnration of mischiei-making fanatics against all progressive tlements of society, — another Arabi, another revolution ¢ And rf, in prospect of a fresh cataclysm threatening every European interest, itter all diplomatic means had been exhausted France were to de lure thet she could stand it no longer, 1f she were to take the line which we took mn 15$2,—what mori) nght should we have to say her nay ? Could we fight or restrain her from interfering ¢”

The withdrawal, however, of Great Britain, if it 18 not to cnd in disaster, can only be a gradual process. An intan- ible influence made up of many elements, like that of Eng- land in Egypt, cannot be withdrawn any more than it can be created at a certain hour or by a certain act.

One of the most absurd suggestions for the cutting of this Gordian knot is neutralisation. In the case of small but well-governed and highly civilised States, such aa Bel- gium and Switzerland, neutralisation and a strict principle of non-intervention by the Great Powers is all very well ; it would, however, be difficult to conceive anything more unlike than the internal condition of those well-governed countries and that of Egypt. A neutral policy on the part of the Powers would scarcely be likely to insure the inter-

88 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

nal good government and the peace of Egypt. It would be simply evading the main objcct of all foreign imterfer- ence, whether by the six Powers, or England and France jointly, or by England alone However, Great Biitain 18 hardly likely to adopt so weak and cowardly a policy, which would “simply mean that, from unwillingness to allow any one of their number to do the work in which all are interestcd, the Powers should detcrmine that that work must be Icft undone” Such, indeed, stripped of all diplo- matic highfalutin, 1s the meaning of the specious word ‘ neutralisation” applicd to Lgypt Besides, how would the various forcign mterests, which undoubtedly exsist in Egypt, be safc znarded 1f Egypt was neutralised ?

Anothcr suggestion by political thcorists 15 that Egypt’s natural guardin the Porte, as its suzcrain, should be the protector of Egypt, which should be ncutral as regards all othe: European powers Turkey, in short, would be the policeman of Lgypt, and be 1csponsible for order and firm internal government Thcicis sonc thing Umost ludicrous in this proposal “The idea of intiusting Turkey with the maint nance of 1eforms the chief aim of which has been to differenti ite Egypt fiom Turkish administration, is like substituting the wolf for the shecp-dog as the guardian of the flock ”

Then there are many who advocite what they are pleased to call “internationalisation"? This is going backwards with a vengeance In other words, Egypt would be “ put into commission,” and fettcred by the Great Powers in her administrative and internal policy, as she 1s already in her financial measures For Egypt has indeed suffered already from a certain amount of internationalism It ıs the bond- holders who have the power of the purse, and the rawon 2’ tmmmef the sanction of the Powers in measures affecting the finances ıs the fact that they represent the creditors of Egypt. Then, too, the veto of the Powers which already

THE MAKING OF EGYPT. 89

exists on the legislative authority of the Egyptian Govern- ment, might be supposed to give sufficient European in- fluence. When the political chaos of the last years of Ismail, when Egypt was tied hand and foot by Europe, — each country having a right to a finger in the pie, and each disdaining responsibility, — gave way to the dual control, it was a great step in advance, and results have shown that the single control has benefited Egypt still more. It might naturally be supposed, then, by all unbiassed and disinterested observers, — by all, in short, who are not con- firmed Anglophobists, — that the retention of the guardian- ship by England, so long as any foreign mtervention is necessary, is the one sensible solution of the Egyptian question.!}

1 For most of the facts and a great deal of the information in this chapter I

have laid under contribution Sir Alfred Milner’s invaluable atudy of contempo- rary Egypt, entitled “ England in Egypt.”

CHAPTER V.! ALEXANDRIA AND THE NILE DELTA.

JIE traveller, reaching the Land of the Pharaohs by

the direct sea-route via Alexandria, must be prepared for a certain sense of disappointment when the bleak and barren shores of the Nile Delta are first sighted. The monotonous ridges of desolate sand-hills, varied by equally unattractive lagoons, are a melancholy contrast to the beau- titul scenery ot the North Atiican littoral farther west, which delighted his eyes a few days before, as the vessel skirted the Algerian and Tunisian coasts. If the expect- ant traveller is so disillusioned by his first glunpse of Egypt from the sea, still keener is his disappointment when the ship enters the harbour. But for an occasional palm-tree 01 minaret standing out among the mass of shops and warehouses to give a faint suggestion of Oriental at- mosphere, this bustling and painfully modern-looking city might be mistaken for some flourishing French seaport, say a Marscilles or a Havre, plumped down on the Egyp- tian plain. It is difficult to realise that this is the city of Alexander the Great, and the metropolis of Egypt under the Ptolemies.

Alexandria, though a much modernised and hybrid sort of city, is not without interest. It has, no doubt, been rather neglected by writers of Egyptian travel, and, conse- quently, ignored by tourists, who,do not as a rule strike

: chapter (and a portion of the following one) is reprinted from an article contributed to the Picturesque Mediterranean,” by kind permission of the publishers, Cassell & Conipany, Limited, London.

ALEXANDRIA AND THE NILE DELTA. 91

out a line for themselves. It has been regarded too much as the most convenient landing-place for Cairo, and visitors usually devote but a few hours for a hasty inspection of its curiosities before rushing off by express-train to the City of the Caliphs.

It would, of course, be absurd to compare Alexandria, essentially the commercial capital of Egypt, in point of artistic or historic interest with Cairo; though, ea a matter of fact, the capital is a modern city in comparison with the Alexandria of Alexander, while Alexandria itself is but of mushroom growth contrasted with Heliopolis, Thebes, Memphis, or other dead cities of the Nile Valley of which traces still remain. It has often been remarked that the Ptolemaic capital has bequeathed nothing but iis ruins and it» name to the Alexandria of to-day. Even these ruins are deplorably scanty, and many of the sites are purely conjectural. Few vestiges remain of the architectural splendours of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Where are now the four thousand palaces of which the conquering general Amru boasted to his mastor, the Caliph Omar? What now remains of the magnificent Temple of Serapis towering over the city on its platform of one hundred steps? But though there are scarcely any traces of the glories of ancient Alexandria, the traditions of the golden age of the Egyptian Renaissance cannot be altogether forgotten by the classical student; and to the thoughtful traveller imbued with the genius loci, this city of memories ia not without a certain charm. Here Saint Mark preached the gospel and. suffered martyrdom, and here Athanasius in warlike controversy did battle with the Arian heresies. Here, in this centre of Greek culture, were for many cen- turies collected the greatest intellects of the age. Here Cleopatra, vainqueur des vainqueurs du monde, held An- tony a willing captive while Octavius was preparing his legions to crush him. Here Amru conquered, and here

92 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Abercrombie fell Even those whose tastes do not incline them to lstorical or theological researches are familiar, thanks to Kingsley’s immortal romance, with the story of the noble-minded Hypatia and the crafty and unsc1upulous Cyn, and can give icin to their imagination by verifying the site of the muscum where she lectured, and of the Cesarcum where she fell a victim to the atiocious zeal of Peter the Readcr ind his rabble of fanatical monks

Just as Alexandiii has becn ignored by the Egyptian tourist, 80 has it been persistently neglected by antiquaries and Eyyptologists, and no syst matic excavation on the sites of ancicnt buildings has bccn undertaken It 18 true that of recent years some attempt has been made by the Egyptian Dxplorition Fund to discover some of the archi- tectural spoils of the Ptolemaic dynasty buried beneath the accumulition of rubbish of centuries, but the splendid oppoitunity for the excavation and c¢xplorition of the conjectural sites of the Serapeum, Casarcum, and other famous monnum nts, afforded ın 1882, when a grcat portion of the city liy in ruins afte: the bombadment, was al- lowed to pass by this learned society In 1895 Mr Hogarth carricd out a series of caperimental borings, but the results were not encouraging, as watcr was found under the twenty te thirty fect ot thi deposit ot rubbish, and only a few poor specimens of Roman and Byz intine archi- tecture rewarded the trouble of the explore: Mı Hogarth explains the remarkable disappcarance of the many palaces and temples, which studded the city during the age of the Ptolemies, by the subsidence of the soil and the encroach- ment of the ssa Some authorities, among them Professor Mahaffy, do not, however, consider that any defimte con- clusions should be drawn from this partial and superficial proj of the soil. Very possibly Mr Hogarth was unfor- tunate in tapping the low-lying parts of the city, and it would be advisable that future excavations should be car-

ALEXANDRIA AND THE NILE DELTA. 98

ried on in the elevated ground near Pompey’s Pillar, which most antiquaries agree in regarding as the site of the Sera- peum. But in a crowded city like Alexandria all scientific excavation is particularly costly, owing to the difficulty of disposing of the excavated soil.

The peculiar shape of the city, built partly on the Pharos islani and peninsula, and partly on the mainland, is due, according to the ancient chroniclers, to a patriotic wim of the founder, who planned the city in the form of a chlamys, the short cloak or tunic worn by the Macedonian goldiers. The modern city, though it has pushed its boundaries a good way to the cast and west, still preserves this curious outline, albeit, to a non-classical mind, it rather suggests a starfish. Various legends are extant to aecount for the choice of this particular spot for a Mediterranean port. According to the popular version, a venerable seer ap- peared to the Great Conqueror in a dream, and recited those verses in the Odyssey! describing the one sheltered haven on the Egyptian coast. Acting on this supernatural hint, Alexander decided to build his city on this part of the coast, where the Pharos isle acted as a natural break- water, and where a small Greek fishing-settlement called Rhacotis was already established. It is, however, hardly necessary to fall back on a mythical legend to account for the selection of this site. The two great aims of Alexan- der were the creation of a centre for trade and the devel- opment of commerce, and the fusion of the Greek: and Roman nations. To attain these objects it was necessary to build a seaport near the mouths of the Nile, — the great highway of Egypt. A site west of the Nile mouths was probably chosen because of the eastward set of the tide, as the alluvial soil brought down by the Nile would soon choke a harbour excavated east of the river, as had already

1u A certain island called Pharos, that with the high-waved sea is washed, just against Egypt,” etc.

94 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

happened at Pelusium. It is this alluvial wash which has also rendered the harbours of Rosctta and Damietta almost useless for vessels of any draught, and at Port Said the accumulation of sand necessitates: continuous dredging in order to keep clear the entrance of the Suez Canal.

A well-known writer on Egypt has truly observed that there are three Egypts to interest the traveller, — the Egypt of the Pharavhs and the Bible, the Egypt of the Caliphates and the “ Arabian Nights,’ and the Egypt of European commerce and enterprise. To which he might have added, the Kgypt of the Ptolemies and the Roman Empire. It is to this last stage of civilisation that the fine harbour of Alexandria bears witness. Not only is it of intcrest to the enginecr and the man of science, but it is also of great historic importance. It serves as a link between ancient and modern civilisation. The port is Alexander’s best monument, — “82 queris monumentum, cireumspice.”’ But for this, Alexandria might now be a little fishing-port of no more importance than the little Greek fishing-village Rhacotis, whose ruins lie buried beneath its spacious quays. The harbour was originally formed by the construction of a vast mole (Heptastadion) joining the island of Pharos to the mainland; and this stupendous feat of engineering, planned and carried out by Alexander, has been supple- mented by the magnificent breakwater constructed by Eng- lish engineers in 1872, at a cost of over two-and-a-half millions sterling. After Marseilles, Malta, and Spezia, it ìs perhaps the finest port in the Mediterrancan, both on account of its natural advantages as a haven, and by reason of the vast engincering works mentioned above.

The western harbour (formerly called Eunostos, “good home-sailing”), of which we are speaking,—for the east- ern, gf so-called New Harbour, is ehoked by sand and only used by small native craft,— has, however, one serious drawback in a dangerous bar at the entrance, which

ALEXANDRIA AND THE NILE DELTA. 95

should, of course, have been partially blown up before the breakwater and the other engineering operations were undertaken. Owing to this obstruction, large vessels seldom attempted, till recently, to cross the bar in rough weather, and never at night. In the course of the last few years, however, a wide and deep channel hag been cut through this reef, and now the entrance to the harbour is practicable at all hours of the day and night. In fact, during 1896 over four hundred vessels entered Aloxandria harbour in the night-time. These improvements have naturally tended to make .Alexandria more resorted to than formerly by travellers as the port of entry for Cairo, instead of Port Said or Ismailia.

During the period ot Turkish misrule — when Egypt under the Mamelukes, though nominally a velayet of the Ottoman Empire, was practically under the dominion of the Beys — the trade of Alexandria had declined consider- ably, and Rosetta had taken away most of its commerce. When Mehemet Ali, the founder of the present dynasty, rose to power, his clear intellect at once comprehended the importance of this ancient emporium and the wisdom of Alexander’s choice of a site for the port which was des- tined to become the commercial centre of three continents.

Mehemet Ali is the creator of modern Alexandria. He deepened the harbour, which had been allowed to be choked by the accumulation of sand, lined it with spacious quays, built the massive forts which protect the coast, and restored the city to its old commercial importance by putting it into communjeation with the Nile through the medium of the Mahmoudiyeh Canal. This vast under- taking was only carried out with great loss of life. It was excavated by the forced labour of 250,000 peasants, of whom some twenty thousand died from the heat and the severe toil. The whole canal was completed in one year (1819) and cost £300,000.

96 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

The great thoroughfare of Alexandiia — a fine strect running in a stiaight line from the western gate of the city to the Place Mchcmct Ali —1s within a few minutes’ walk of the quay A sudden turn, and the strange ming ling of kistern and Wcstern life buist» upon the spectator’s astonished gaze =‘ hs living diorama, formed by the bril- liant and vcr shifting crowd, 18 1n 1t8 Way unique

The Plice Mchemct Ah, usually called for thc sake of brevity the Giind Syquaic, is close at hand This 19 the untie of the Dwopein quater, and 1ound it are collected the banks, consulu officcs hotcls, and principal shops This squire, the focus of the life of modern Aley ndra, 18 applopllatcly nimcd afte: the founder of the present dynasty, and the creator of the Ezypt of to day

To this geat ruler, who at one time bid fair to become the founder not only of an indepcndcnt kingdom, but of a great Orucntiu cmpne, Alcxandiia owes much of its prosperity and commciciil importance The cucer of Mchemt Al 15 intcrestny ind 10mintic There 18 a certain similuity between his history and that of Napoleon I, and the comncidcnce secms hughtened whoa we remem ber that they were both born im the same year Each, rising from an obscure position, stirtcd as an adventurer on foreign soil, and ¢ wh 10se to political eminence by force of arms Unhke Nipolcon, however, n one important point, Mchemet Ah founded a dynasty which still remains m power, in spite of the weakness and incapacity of his successors To Wcstcin minds, perhaps, his chief claim to hold a igh rank in the worlds history lies in his efforts to intioducc European institutions and methods of eivili- sation, and to establish a system of government opposed to Mohammedan instincts He creatcd an army and navy

ich were partly based on European models, stimulated agriculture and trade, and organised an admunistrative and fiscal system which did much towards putting the

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ALEXANDRIA AND THE WILE DELTA. wy

country on a sound financial footing. The great blot of His reign was, no doubt, the horrible massacre of the Mamie luke beys; and this has been the great point of attack! ty his enemies and detractors. It ig difficult to excuse ‘thie Oriental example of a coup d’état ; but it must be ragem- bered that the existence of this turbulent and rebellious clement was incompatible with the maintenatice of bia vule, and that the peace of the country was as much endangered by the Mameluke beys as was that of the Porte by the Janissaries a few years later, when a somewhat similar atrocity was perpetrated.

In the middle of the square stands a handsome eques- trian statue of Mehemet Ali, which is in one respect a remarkably singular monument. The Mohammedan rg- ligion demands the strictest interpretation of the injune- tion in the decalogue against making “to thyself any giaven image,” and consequently a statue to a follower of the Moslem faith is rarely seen in a Mohammedan country. The erection of this particular monumont was much resented by the more orthodox of the Mussulman population of Alexandria, and the religious feelings of the | mob manifested themselves in riots and other hostile demonstrations. Not only representations in stone or metal, but any kind of likeness of the human form is thought impious by Mohammedans. They believe that author will be compelled on the Resurrection Day to endow with life the sacrilegious counterfeit presentment. Tourists in Egypt who are addicted to sketching, or who dabble in photography, will do well to remember, these conscientious scruples of the Moslem race, and’ not let their zeal for bringing back pictorial mementoed of their travels induce them to take “ pot shota” at mosque inte- riors, for instance. In Egypt, no doubt, the natives have too wholesome a dread of the Franks to manifest theii outraged feelings by physical violence ; but still it is ungeh-

98 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

erous, not to say unchristian, to wound people’s religous prejudices, however superstitious they may appear to us In some other countrics of North Africa, notably in the interior of Morocco or Tripoli, promiscuous photography might be attended with disigrecablc results, if not a certain amount of dange: A tourist would find a kodak camcia, cven with all the latest imp: ovemcnts, a somewhat inefhucnt weapon agunst a mob of fanatical Arabs

For the best view of the city and the surrounding country we must climb the slopes of Mount Caffarclli (now gener ally called Fort Napoleon) to the fort which crowns the summit, or make ow way to the forticss Kom cl Deck on the cluvated „round ncar the Rosetta Gate Alexandria, spread out like 1 map, lies at our deet At this height the commonplice aspect of v busthnsz md thriving seaport, which sccins, on a doser acquuntinc, to be Kuropeansed and modeims d out of the least resemblance to an Onental uty, 's chinged to 1 prospect of some beauty At Alexan dna, cycn more than it most cities of thc East, distance lends enchantment to the view From these heights the squalid back sticcts of the nitive quarter, and the modan hmsmunmsed mun thoroughfucs, look lhe dark threads woven mto the web ot the cty, relieved by the white mosques, with thin swellins domes curving mward hke fin palms towards the crescents flashing in the rays of the sun, and then tall, graceful minari ts piercing the smoke- less and cloudless atmosphere [he subdued roar of the busy streets and quays 15 occasionally varied by the melodi- ous cry of the muezzin "Then, looking northward, one sees the clear blue of the Mcditer:anean, till 1t 18 lost mn the hazy horizon To the west and south the placid waters of the Mayeotis Lake, in reality a shallow and msalubnous tagoodbut to all appearance a smiling lake, which, with its waters fringed by the low lying sand-dunes, reminds the spectator of the peculiar beauties of the Norfolk Broads.

ALEXANDRIA AND THE NILE DELTA. oy

Beyond Lake Mareotis lies the luxuriant plain of the Delta. The view of this plain may not be what is called picturesque, but to the artist the scenery has its special charm. It 1s no doubt flat and monotonous, but there is no monotony of colour in this richly cultivated plain, once the granary of the Roman Empire. Simplicity is, in short, the predominant “note” in the scenery of Lower Egypt, but, as Mr. H. D. Traill has well observed, here the artist finds “the broadest effects produced by the slenderest means.” In the description of this North African Holland innumer- thle pens have been worn out in comparison and simile. To some this huge market-garden, with ita network of canals and ditches, simply invites a homely comparison with a chess board. Others, with a gift fur fanciful metaphor, will liken the landscape to a green robe or carpet shot with silver threads, or to a seven-ribbed fan, the ribs being, of course, the seven mouths of the Nile. One may, however, differ ag to the most appropriate metaphors, but all must agiee that there are unique elements of beauty in the Delta landscape. Seen, as most tourists do sec it, in winter or spring, the green fields of waving corn and barley, the mead- ows of watermelons and cucumbers, the fields ot pea and purple lupin one mass of colours, interspersed with the palm-groves and white minarets which mark the site of the Umost invisible mud-villages, and intersected thickly with countless canals and trenches that in the distance look like silver threads, and suggest Brobdignagian filigree work or the delicate tracery of King Frost on our window-panes, the view is impressive, and not without beauty.

In the summer and early autumn, especially during August and September, when the Nile is at ite height, the view is still more striking, though hardly so beautiful. Then it is that this Protean country offers its most impres- sive aspect. The Delta becomes an inland archipelago studded with green islands, each island crowned with a

100 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

white-mosqued village, or conspicuous with a cluster of palms The Nile and its swollcn tributaries are covered with huge-suled dahibiychs, which give life and vanety to the wati1y c\pans

Alexandria can host of few “hons,” as the word 1s usually understood but of these by far the most interesting 1s the column known by the name of Pompcy’s Pillu Every one has heard of this famous monolith, which 15 as closely asso- erated in poople s minds with Alcxandia as the Coliseum 18 With Rome the \Uhambri with Granada, or the Krem lin with Moscow It has, of cows, no more to do with the Pompy of history (to whom ıb is attributed by the unlettered tourist) thin his Cleopatias Necdle with thit famous quicn the * Scipent of old Nile” or Joseph s Wal at Cano with the Hebrow pituauch It owes its name to the fact that a catan prefect named altcr ( esar’s great rival erected on the summit of an custmg column —1n the opinion of Professor Mihaffy one crected by Ptolumy Ho in memory of his favorite wife, Arsinoc — i. stituc im honour of the horse of the Romin cmpcior Diocletim Thae 18 atamiliiur legend which his been invented to recount for the spccial rcason of its ciection, which gwde book com- pilersare very fondof Accordin, to the story, this historic anımal, through an opportune stumble, stayed the persecu tion of the Alcxandiiin Chiistians, 19 the tyrannical em- peror had sworn to continu the massicic till the blood of the victims icached lis horses knecs Antiquarians and Egy ptologists ire, however, given to scofing at the ¢radi- tion as a plausible myth

In the opinion of many learned authorities, the shaft of this column was once a portion of the Se:apeum, that famous building which was both a temple of the heathen god Ser™pis and a vast trcasuie-house of ancient civilisation In order to account for 1ts omission in the descriptions of Alexandna given by Pliny and Strabo, who had mentioned

ALEXANDRIA AND THE NILE DELTA. 101

the two obelisks of Cleopatra, it has been suggested that the column had fallen, and that the Prefect Pompcy had merely reerected 1t 1n honour of Diocletian, and replaced the statue of Serapis with one of the emperor, — or of his horse, ac- cording to some chroniclers. This statue, if it ever existed, has now disappeared. As the column stands, however, it 14a singularly striking and beautiful monument, owing to its great height, simplicity of form, and elegant proportions. It renunds the spectator a httle of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, and pethaps the absence of a statue 1s not altogether to be cgr tted, considering the height of the colmanu, as it might suggest to the irrepressible tourists,

ho seoft at Nelson’s statue as the “ Mast-hc aded Admiral,” some similar witticism at the expense of Diocletian.

With the exception of this monolith, which, “ a solitary column, mourns above its prostrate brethren,’ only a few fragmentary and scattercd 1uins of fallen columns mark the ste of the world-renowned Serapeum Nothing else remains of the famous library, the magnificent portico with 1ts hun- died steps, the vast halls, and the four hundred marble columns of that gicat building, designed to perpetuate the glories of the Ptolemes. This hbrary, which was the forerunner of the great libraries of modern times, must not he confounded with the equally famous one which was ittached to the Museum, whose exact site 1s still a bone of contention among antiquarians. The latter was destroyed by accident when Juhus Cæsar set fire to the Alex- andrian fleet. The Serapeum collection survived for six hundred years, till its wanton destruction through the fanaticism of the Caliph Omar. The Arab conqueror is said to have justificd this barbarism with a fallacious epi- fram, which was as unanswerable, however logically faulty, as the famous one familar to students of English history under the name of Archbishop Morton’s Fork “If these writings,” declared the uncompromising conqueror, “ agree

102 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

with the Book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved , 1f they disagrec, they are pernicious, and ought to be destioyed’’ Nothing could prevail against this fla- grant example of a petrteo prin ipu, and for 51, months the three hundicd thousand paichments supphed fuel for the four thousand baths of Alevandiia

Hud by Pomp s Pillar is a dicary waste, dotted with curiously carved structures This 1s the Mohammedan cemetery As in most Oricntil towns, the cemetery 1s at thi west cend of the town, as the Mohammedans consider that the quarta of the horizon in which the sun sets 15 the most suitable spot for then burying pliccs Tn this melan choly city of the decid arc bunicd also many of the ruins of the Sciapeum, and scattered about mons the tombs arc fragments of columns ind broken pedestals On some of the tombs a gicen tutbin is rouchly puntcd, strangely out of harmony with the severe stone Carvin. — [his sigmtties that the tomb holds the ramuns of 1 d sccndint of the Prophet, or of a devout Moslem who hid himsclf, and not vicalio Isly as is 30 often donc, made the pilziimize to the sacred city of Mccca Some ot thi he adst mes are elab orately carved, but most ue quite plua, with the exception of a verse of the Koran cut in thc stone The observant toumnst will notice on miny of the tombs a curious httle round hole cut in the stone at the head, which sccms to be intended to form 1 passige to the mtezio of the vault, though the aperture 1s ec ncrally filled up with earth It1s said that this pissage was made to cnable the Angcl Iarafel, at the Resuricction, to draw out the occupant by the hair of his head , and the custom which obtains among the lower- (lass Moslems of shaving thc head, with the exception of a round tuft of hair in the middle — a fashion which suggests an ient pigtail or an inverted tonsure — 18 as much due to this superstition as to sanitary considerations

Of far greater interest than this comparatively modern

ALEXANDRIA AND THE NILE DELTA 108

cemetery are the cave cemeteries of El-Meks, These cata- combs are some four miles from the city. The route along the extended low ridge of sand-hills is singularly unpictur- esque, but the windmills (built by Napoleon I. to grind corn tor his troops when he occupied the country) which fringe the shore give a homely aspect to the country, and gcse at any rate to break the monotony of ths dreary and desolate 1cgion. We soon reach Said Pacha’s unfinished palace of El-Meks, which owes ts origin to the mania fur building which helped to make the reign of that weak- mindcd 1ulcr so costly to Ins overtaxed subjects. One rimis at the bastard style of architecture 18 sufficient to remove any feeling of disappointment on being told that thc building 1s not open to the public

Ihe catacombs, which spread a considerable distance along the seashore, and ot which the so-called Baths ot (lLopatia are a part, are very extensive, and tounsts are usually satisfied with exploring a part. There are no Inummics, but the niches can be clearly seen. The plan of the catacombs ıs curiously like the wards of a key.

Theic are few “ sights” in Alexandiia of much interest besides those already mentioned In fact, Alexandria is interesting more as a city of sites than sights. It 18 true that the names of some of the mosques — such as that of the One Thousand and One Columns, built on the spot where Saint Mark suffered martyidom, and the Mosque of Saint Athanasius — are calculated to arouse the curiosity of the tourist, but the interest 1s ın the name alone. The Mosque of Many Columns ıs turned into a quarantine sta- tion, and the Mosque of Saint Athanasius has no connection with the great Father except that it stands on the site of a church in which he probably preached.

Then there 1s the Coptic Convent of Saint Mark, which, according to the inmates, contains the body of the great evangelist, — an assertion which would scarcely deceive

104 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

the most ignorant and most credwlous tourist that ever intrusted himself to the foste1inz care of Messrs Cook, as it 18 well known that “aint Mirk’s body was removed to Venice ın thi nmth century The mosque with the ornate exterior and lofty minaret, ın which the remains of Said Pacha are bnricd, called Mosque Ncbbi Danicl, 1s the only onc besides th sc alicady mcntioncd which would be woth visiting This is inteacsting to I xyptolozists as be mg the reputed site of the tomb of Alexander the Great As, howcver no Chiistiins are admitted to this khedrsial mausok um, no imtiquanin rseuchcs or excavations can be undertaken in crdcr tov rify this ti iditional sıte The stone satcophizus in the British Muscum which was thought to hue becn thit of Alexander 16 now known to be crroncously attobutcd to this monarch It was madc for an carlier hing of the thiticth dynasty, B ¢ 378-358

CHAPTER VI. THE STORY OF THE SUEZ CANAL.

IE coast between Rosetta and Port Said is, like the

rest of the Egyptian littoral, flat and monotonous. The only break in the dreary vista is afforded by the jieturesque-looking town of Damietta, which, with its lofty houses, looking in the distance hike marble palaces, has a striking appearance scen from the sea. The town, though containing some spacious bazaars and several large and well-proportioned mosques, has little to attract the visitor, and there are no antiquities or buildings of any historic terest. The traveller full of the traditions of the Crusades, who expects to find some traces of Saladin and the Saracens, will be doomed to disappointment. Damietta is comparatively modern, the old Byzantine city having been destroyed by the Arabs early in the thirteenth century, and rebuilt — at a safer distance from invasion by sea—a few miles inland, under the name of Men- sheeyah. One of the gateways of the modern town, the Mensheeyah Gate, serves as a reminder of its former name. Though the trade of Damietta has, in common with most of the Delta seaports, declined since the construction of the Mahmoudiyeh Canal, it is still a town of some com- mercial importance, and consular representatives of several European powers are stationed here. To sportamen Dami- etta offers special advantages, as it makes capital head- quarters for the wild-fowl shooting on Menzaleh Lake, which teems with aquatic birds of all kinds. Myriads of

105

106 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

wild duck may be seen feeding here, and “big game,” — if the expression can be applied to birds, — in the shape of herons, pelicans, storks, flamingoes, etc., is plentiful. In the marshes which abut on the lake specimens of the papy- rus are to be found, this neighbourhood being one of the few habitats of this 1are plant.

Soon after rounding the projecting ridge of low sand- hills, which fringe the estuary of the Damietta branch of the Nile, the noble proportions of the loftiest lighthouse ın the Mediterranean come into view. It is fitted with one of the most powerful electric lights in the world, its penctrating rays being visible on a clear night at a dis- tance of over twenty-five miles Shortly afterwards the forest of masts, apparently springing out of the desert, informs the passenger of the near vicinity of Port Said. There is, of course, nothing to see at Port Said from a tourist’s standpoint. The town is little more than a large coaling station, and is of very recent growth. It owes its existence solely to the Suez Canal, and to the fact that the water at that part of the coast is deeper than at Pelusium, where the isthmus is narrowest.

The town is built partly on artificial foundations on the strip of low sand banks which form a natural sea-wall, protecting Lake Menzaleh from the Mediterranean. In the autumn, at high Nile,it is surrounded on all sides by water. An imaginative writer once called Port Said the Venice of Africa, — not a very happy description, as the essentially modern appearance of this coaling station strikes the most unobservant visitor. The comparison might for its inappositeness rank with the proverbial one between Macedon and Monmouth. Both Venice and Port Said are landlocked, and that is the only feature they have 1 mon.

The sandy plains in the vicinity of the town are, how- ever, full of interest to the historian and archeologist.

THE STORY OF THE SUEZ CANAL 107

Here may be found ruins and remains of antiquity which recall a period of civilisation reaching back more centuries thin Port Said (built in 1859) does in years. The ruins of Pelusium (the Sın of the Old Testament), the key of noithcasttin Egypt in the Pharaome period, are only cightecen miles distant, and along the shore may still be tricd a fcw vestiges of the great highway — the oldest 101d in the world of which remains exist — constructed by Rimiscs the Great in 1350 B c, when he undertook his «\pedition for the conquest of Syma

lo come to more recent history, ıt was on these shores that Cambyses detcated the Dgyptians , and here, some five ‘ntunies later, Pompey the Great was treachciously mur- iced when he fid to Egs pt after the battle of Pharsaha

To the southwest of Port Said, near the httle fishing- villaze of Sais, on the southcin shore of Lake Menzaleh, r the magnificent ruins of Tanis (the Zoan of the Old lestament) These seldom-visited rcmains are only sccond to those of Thebes and Memphis ın historical ind archeological intercst The rums were uncovered at arcat cost of labour by the lite Marictte Bey, and in the Groat Temple were unearthed some of the most notable monuments of the Pharaonic age, including over a dozen eizantic fallcn obelisks This vast building, restored and ‘nlarged by Rameses II, dates back over five thousand wears As Thebcs declincd, Tanis rose in importance, and under the kings of the Twenty-first Dynasty it became the chief seat of government Mr John Macgregor (Rob Roy), who was one of the first of modern travellers to call attcntion to these grand ruins, declares that of all the celebrated remains he has seen, none impressed him “so deeply with the sense of fallen and deserted magnifi- cence” as the ruined temple of Tanis

The Suez Canal ıs admittedly one of the greatest under- takıngs of medern tımes, and has perhaps effected a greater

108 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

transformation in the world s commerce, during the twenty years that have elapsed since its completion, than has been effected m thc same period by the agcncy of steam

It was mphatically the work of one man, and of one too, who was devoid of the slightest technical traming im the engincuing profession = Monsicur de Li sseps cannot, of comse, Claim any originality m the conecption of this great undcrtaking for the ides of opening up communication between the Mi ditutan an and the Red Sea by means of 1 mantin canal 1s alm st is old 1s I gyptitslf and many attempts wac made by the rulcis of I zvpt, from Sesostris downwards to spin the isthmus with ¢ a bridzc of water Most of these projycets prove] ab rto, though there was some hind of watoa commun itim betwee nth two scas in the time of the Ptolomes inl it wis ty this canal that Cleopatra attemp ted to escape dta the battle of Actium When Napolon the Groat oceupicd | zyypt he went so fir as to appoint a commussi m of enamecrs to examine into a projected scheme for i mauntime cemal but owing to the ynorince of the Commissioners who rportd that there was a difturence of thity tutin the lyd» ot the two seas, — though there 1s really scucely more thin six mches,— which would necessitate vast locks ind involyc an Cnormous outlay of moncy the plun was given up

The Suc7 C mal is in short, the work of one gicat man, and its existence 16 duc to the undoubted courge and m domitable encrzy, t> the intensity of conviction and to the magnetic personility, of M de Lesscps, wiuch influenced every one with whom he cami in contact, from the viceroy down to the humblest fellah This great project was car- ricd out, too, not by a professional engineer, but by a mere consular clerk and was c\ccuted m spite of the most de- tewig@med opposition of politicians and capitalists, and im the te th of the mockery and ridicule of practical engineers, who affected to sneer at the s: he me as the chimencal dream

THE STORY OF THE SUEZ CANAL 109

cf a vainglonous Frenchman The canal, regarded from a purly picturesque standpoint, dves not present such strik- mz features 1s othe: great monuments of engineering skull, the Korth Bridge, the Mont Cenis Tunnel, the Brooklyn Drudge or the 1 ulw 15 which scales the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountuns This “huge ditch,” as it has been con- t mptuously called his not mdecd, “been carried over lueh meuntums nor cut through rock bound tunnels, nor havc its atars been confined by Pitanic masses of masonry ” ln fut technically speaking the name * canal,’ as apphed t this channel 19 .misnomer — It has nothing in common itl tha canals —no lochs gites, 1¢8c1voirs8, nor pump na cngines Ítisically an utifcial strait,— a prolonga t n ian amn of thi sea We can frecly concede this yet t those of imaginative temperament thore are elements of r mince bout this colossal enterprise It 18 the creation { i minctecnth century wizard who, with his cnchantcr’s \ ni— the spide —has transfnmed the shape of the lobe mnd sunim med the sei to flow unintcrruptedly from th Mediterranean to the Indiin Ocen Then, too, the m st matter of fut traydle who traverscs it can seacely ful to be mmpresscd with thi pecuha jenmeus Dea Every mile of the canal passes through a region cnriched by the m morics of events which had then birth m the remotest cs of antiquity Across this plain Abraham wandered from distant Ur of the (haldces, some iour thousand years ago Beyond the placid waters of Like Menzaleh hic the rums of Zoan, where Moses performed his miracles On the right les the Plain of Pclusium, 111088 which the hosts of Persian, Greek, and Roman congue rers successively swept to take possession of the 1ches of Egypt In passing throuzh the canal at night,— the clectric hght serving as a pillar of fire” to the steamer, as it swiftly but silently ploughs 1ts course through the desert,—the strange 1m- pressiveness of the scene 1s intensified ‘The Suez Canal

110 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

links together, in striking contrast, the great Past and the greater Present, pointing to a future which we are as little able to divine as were the Pharaohs or Ptolemies of old to forecast the wondcrs of the nineteenth century ”

The history of the cntcrprisc from 1855, when the con ccssion wis gront(d by Said Pacha, to the inauguration of the canal m Nove mbur, 1809, 1e1ds hke 1 10mance The main difhecultics werc political, for the physical obstacles werc not serous, Considciring the magmtude of the tash Indecd, the very simphieity of the undurtiking frcm an engincerin,, point of vicw — for the cutting of the Isthmus of Sucz was morcly a question of time, money, and 2 suff erxcncy of nitve laibour in’ the crudest form— no doubt contiibuted not vu little to wieck M d Lesseps s subsequent cnterprisc, 19 16 led him to underestimate the serious naturi of Ins tisk im the westain hemisphare in which the phys wal obstichs wore Umost msuper ade im comp unison Then m the case of Panumi thae wore n> prcdcccssors from whose mistakes M de Losseps mht profit, 16 was the case In Paypt, whare previous projectors were scrously hand capped through uwceptin, Ntpolcons cngzimeers erroneous calculation ot the Red Sea bomyg thnty feet higher than the Mcditerranc in as a hydiomaphicil uom Then, too, there scemed to be 2 kind of tradition mong them that no canal could be a success which did not depend upon the Nile for its water supply It was the political aspect ot the canal which give msc to so much opposition, and thc political significance of the cxclusive control, by a French company, of the great highw iy to India and the Australasian colonics was appreciated at its full value by Great Britain

In short, the Sucz Canil project was regarded by diplo- matists as an international qucstion involving serious 1gsues,

was ccrtainly a powerful factor in European pohtics The neutrahty of the canal m times of war was felt to be a matter of great importance, for, as 1t was destined to be

THE STORY OF THE SUEZ C&WAL. 111

the great gate between the eastern and western hemi- spheres, it was essential that it should be kept opém. In fact, to look ahead a few years, one reason for the inter- vention of the English, in helping tö crush the military revolution in 1882, was the necessity of maintaining & free waterway in the canal, which was menaced by Amire troops. Lesseps’s chief difficulty lay in fhe debérshined opposition of Lord Palmerston, whose inflaagee with’ the Porte at this time was considerable. The British (iovern- ment succeeded in getting the imperial firmtan santtioning the concession of the Viceroy withheld far a considerable tume, by suggesting that ıt would teng te inorease the inde- xrdence of Egypt. Lord Palmerston’s commercial ob- jections to the canal certainly showed a striking lack of appreciation of the economical conditions of the world’s commerce. His argument was based on the ill-founded assumption that England would lose her supremacy as g great carrying nation if this new maritime route were thrown open to the world. Yet by reducing the voyage to India almost one-half England would, of course, benefit more than any other nation. The absurdity of Palmers- ton’s contention 18 sufficiently demonstrated by the fact that, in 1895, seventy per cent. of the tonnage of ships which passed through the canal carried the English flag. There was, however, some sound reason in Lord Palmer- ston’s objection to the canal, as a statesman. In the orig- mal concession of Said Pacha, the territory stretching for several miles on either side of the canal, and extending ita whole length, was granted to the Canal Company. Conse- quently, the British Government contended that in time af war France’s control of the isthmus would be a menace fo eua But Lord Palmerston might have made a ion and. approval contingent on the amendment dangerous clause, inslead of irritating « tdendly P by a oceania: witi

112 THF CITY OF THE CALIPHS

Had England joined the other Powers in furthering M de Lesseps’s scheme, and not placed iteelf out of court by its persistent hostility, m il probability the actual ncutiality of the canal would not havc becn deliyed tall 1887

M de Lesseps, whose faith in the project was not shikin by the hostility of the Luglsh Government and the apathy of the Poite, started opu tions m 1859, himself cutting the first sod in the narrow stip of sand between Lake Menzalceh wd thi Mediter nean, on Apul 25

TA 18504 progress wis stcady but slow, is the actual ov cavation was done by manual labour over twenty five thou sand fellihs bamg supp lied by thi coreée for this work lu this ycar, diflicultics arose which thie itencd to wreck the enterpuse The new Khedive Ismul was alirmcd at the continual dian on hus subj cts by the concession of his predecessor, Which omg dle thim to supply so Lurge i numba of workmen to the € mal Comp iny and thicaitened tò stop the supply of native Jibourcis Lhe dispute was submitted to the Fmpcror Napoleon TE as arbitrator who dcecaded that the } syptiin Govcrnment should p21% an indemnity of one and one half million pounds fn the withdi iw ul of thie native labouras = This nuisfortunc proved howcver a blessing m disguise "The Company was compelled to use machinery for excay iting and diredzinz, which proved fir more effica cious and, cventuily more economical than nitive labour d inabled the contiuctors to complete the undertakıng within a few months of the stipulated time

By November, 1869, all was ready for the mauguration cercmonics, Which were carried out by the Khedive on a scale of unparalleled magnificence At these festivities all the Powers of Europe were offiuially represented France and Austria by the Empress Eugéme and the Emperor

cis Joseph, respectively, and other countries by mem- bers of the royal family or special envoys | Even England forgot her old political jealousy, and was adequately repre-

THE STORY OF THE SUEZ CANAL, 118

sented. But then, it must be remembered that the cruz of the objection of the English Government had been re- moved in 1864, when Ismail bought back iiom the Canal Company the territorial rights over the lands abutting on the canal, for £3,860,000.

Ín order to impress his royal guests, whom Ismail had personally invited in a tour which he made round the Euro- pean courts the year before, the Khedive, who seemed to have a perfect genius for spending, seized the opportun- ity of renovating and hiussinannising Cairo. and attempted to turn this umique Onental city mtv a iecble copy of a third-rate European capital Parks and publi sardens were planted, palaces restored, and boulevards built, and gas was iid in the chief strects, Among the entertainments pro- vided for visitors were concerts and theatneal perlormances, for which the chief stas of Paris and Vicnna were cngaged. Even a new opera was “ commanded” for the oecasion, Verdi composing the Egyptian opera “Aida” to entertain the Khedive’s guests. It has been computed that the expenses attendant on the mauguration of the Suez Canal cost the Khedive, or rather Egy pt, fully four millons; and, no doubt, this lavish expenditure materially contributed to bring about Ismail’s financial collapse and virtual bankruptey a few years later.

Honours of all kinds were subsequently showered upon M. de Lerseps, who was eulogised by the press of Europe as a benefactor to mankind, ennobled by hia grateful sovereign, and made the recipient of decorations and orders from most of the sovereigns of Europe. Finally, to crown all, a place was found for the national hero among the “Immortal Forty.” Nor was England behind- hand in making up for its former neglect, and Comte de Lesseps was created a K. C. S. I., and presented with the freedom of the City of London.

CHAPTER VII CAIRO AS A RESORT FOR INVALIDS

AIRO itsclf cannot be unreservedly recommended as

a health resort pure and simple The Egyptian ch- mate 1s undeniably admuably suited for a winter residence, and in most respects it 18 superior to thit of any health resort in the south of Francc,— thc world s great winter sanatonum But the city of Cairo possesses too many factihous drawbacks, which militite against its use as a clhmatic health station Now that othcr he alth-resorts, such as Luxor, Assouan, Helouan, etc , arc getting better known and developed, medical men are beginning to realise that, hymemically spcaking, Cairo is not Egypt Its enor- mous population and limited arca, for one thing, does not commend 1t to medical men as 1 wintcr residence for their patients An overcrowded city of nearly half a million inhabitants, with its unsatisfactory hygienic conditions and appallingly primitive and unsanitary system of drainage, — if system it can be called, — the annual summer visitation of cholera, etc , seems, indeed, the last place to which the health-seeker, as distinct from the mere tourist or pleasure- seeker, should be sent. It is true that the samitation of the Continental, Shepheards, Ghezireh Palace, and other fashion- able hotels 1s beyond reproach, but the visitor 1s not hkely to sperg@ell his time in the hotel Besides, the mnumer-

able urban amusements and social gaseties and dissipations 114

CAIRO AS A RESORT FOR INVALIDS. 117

ley 18 practically ml), genial warmth (which, owing to its lack of moisture, 18 not oppressive), and highly tome qualities, but, to counterbalance these good points, great lack of equabilty The great diflcrence between day and nizht temperature 1s, no doubt, a very seriuus drawback [his lack of uniformity 1s, of course, inevitable im all coun- tris where a lish temperature and immur fy from ram uc combined Tn short, 1t 18 1 meteorological axiom that cquability Cimnot exst with a vcrv dry atmosphere and & high temperature Lqualelty tmp lea of course, a ertan amount of humidity An ideal cl mate would combine the cquilglity and softness of Madcira, the wirmth tnd dryness cf Upper Egypt, and the chemically pur atimosphere of Biskra m Algona

Thc following summary of the chmatı conditions of (aro, bb Di F M Sandwith, prepared for my work on the hcalth resorts of South Lurope and North Africa (èd cd , 1896), may be conve mently inscited here

Tc save spice it 15 only necessary herc to consider the seven win- ter months from November ] to Muy 31 Ihe barometer seldom Vu s though thae in 1 steady fall from 2) 99 in Dect mbei to 29 82 in Ayml Ramn amounts to one inch and a quarter the number of days upon which drops or showers fall Lem, about fifteen Cloude (wing January and February reach a maximum of 4 upon a seale exe 10 The prevalent wind is from the north or northwest, and W nevcr sufficiently fierce to keep patients within doors The Khamseen blows from the southwest desert during March and \pril seldom for more than two days ina weck It 18 unpleasantly hot and dtwty while it lasts 111 drives many visitors away from Cairo The ‘ollowing table, drawn up from my own observations, shows the temperatures to which patients may be exposed It is based on the p*inciple that a sick man need not concern himself with the minimim outdoor temperature of a place, for that 18 always at an hour whga he ought to be safe in bed The vital information for him 1s the average maximum shade temperature out of doors, together with the average minimum bedroom heat, and the daily range between them It will be noticed that there s no very serous

118 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

range until the hot weather begins. My bedroom records have pur posely been taken in a north room with door wide open, never visited by the sun, unoccupied at night, and unwarmed by artificia) light. This, therefore, gives the greatest cold to which a patient can be subjected, unless he opens his bedroom windows A prudent ım- valid would, of course, eschew a north room, and would warm the air by lamp or candles on going to bed. Thus he would 1aise my minimum results some four degrees, and reduce the range of tem perature considerably. It 1s interesting to note that my minimum results, within two or three degrees, correspond with the mean tem- perature of the month wing April and May it 15, of course, easy to refrain from going out at the hottest time of the day. Thus 1i 15 evident that patients can spend sıx months m Cairo in a temperature which need only vary fiom 63° to 50.

«The shortest days in December give us ten hours daylight, or three hours longer than in Lngland ”

ee ee eae = — ee ee ee Se OO ——

Temperature, I a

Kt Maxiinum Minmann kain Wind. shade Bedroom |

November .

December . 4 days

January . eta

February pa 2 days Drops

March l day {| 3days Drops }

April , 2days f 7.5 days

May 5 5 days

——————— See

The mere fact, that, for one absolutely cloudless win- y in the British Islands — even in the sunniest region

of the South Coast— there are ten or a dozen in Upper Egypt, means more, however, to the non-scientific reader than whole columns of meteorological readings and cli-

CAIRO AS A RESORT FOR INVALIDS. w

matic statistics. In short, the Upper Nile boasts of the most wonderful and salubrious climate of any known win- ter resort in the world available to phthisical patienta. There is, of course, no ideal chmate on the surface of the globe, — no hygienic Utopia where “the consumpt ve can draw in healing influence with every breath;” but the chmate of Upper Egy pt 1s the nearest approach, with n ien days of London, to Tennyson's legendary land vu. Avilion,

« Where falls not tain, or hail, or anv snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly ”

‘Though the weather is popularly supposed tu be the Kuglishman’s staple topic of conversation, the ignorance of the verest a, b, c of meteorology found among ordina- rily well-informed and observant travellers is extraordinary. In Egyptian books of travel and magazine articles one occa- stonally finds the very quality in which the climate of Egypt is 80 di ficient — equability of temperature — singled out, along with its undeniable dryness, for special praise.

Messrs. Hermann Webcr, Burden Saunderson, F. M. Sandwith, and other physicians who have devoted consid- erable attention to the hygienic and climatological aspects of Egypt are agreed that Egypt is particularly suitable for most forms of lung discase, for incipient pulmonary con- sumption, chronic bronchitis, asthma, anemia, chronic rheumatism, and, speaking generally, convalescents from acute diseases. But patients suffering from advanced heart disease, or, in short, very advanced disease of any organ, or from fever, should not he sent to Egypt. Persons sub- ject to obstinate insomnia will also find the climate yn- suitable.

With regard to the best way of reaching Egypt, though most travellers arrive by way of Port Said or Ismailia, this_ route is less preferable than via Alexandria for those who are wintering abroad for their health. The Egyptian tour-

120 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

ist traffic 1s of slight umpoitance compared with that of India and Australia, in the eyes of the directors of the great liners, and passengers who have rashly decided to disem- bark for Cano at Ism ula often find themselyes landed at this half way house ın the middle of the mght, with no means of reaching the capital till the next day What 18 merely a passing inconvcnicnce to the 10bust traveller might naturally be 2 scrious mattcr for the invilid The lght railway which now runs from Port Said to Ismailia can no doubt, bu mide use of if the stcimer arrives carly m the day at Port Sud, but the sevice is slow and intiequent Though digmificd by the name of railway it 15 littl more than a mmatuic steam tramway with 1 vwu of no more than two fect six mehes Whit is wanted 1s 1 railway from Poirt Sud tò Dimu tta only forty milcs west, whence there 16 ducct rulway Communic ition t» Cano and Alex andra Thoe ue no physic ul difhicultics m the constiuc tion of this muh needed rulway Jhe rcal difhculty 18 the jealous opposition of Alkximndia Jhen, too, the Egyptian Government is not indined to regard the scheme favourably, as the increased harbour ducs would fill into the coffers of the Sucz Canal Compiny, and not into the Governmcnt treisury The fact 1¢mains, that, as an ordi- nary commeciu hubouw, Port Sud 1s of trifling import- anu Itis mamly in intiinitionil port and coaling station Though Alex india should be the port of arrival for deh- cate persons, unfortunitcly the great passenger steamship companies, such as the Pcnimsula: and Oriental, Orient, and North German Lloyd, make Port Said and not Alex- andria, theair port of call ın their through services Since 1895, however, an Lgyptian service va Constantinople and Algfndria has been established by the Sleeping Car Com- pany, in connection with the weekly Orient express By this service, Alexandiia can be reached from London, na Ostend, in five and a half days, with only one change be-

CAIRO AS A RESORT FOR INVALIDS. 121

tween Ostend and Alexandria. But this route is only for those to whom expense is no object, costing, with extras, about thirty pounds. Health seekers of modorate means would have to be content with the services of the Message- rics Maritimes, the Austrian Lloyd, or tle Italian Navige- tion Company, sailing from Marseilles, Trieste, and Genoa, respectively.

CHAPTER VIII CAIRO IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT

N some respects, so far as concerns the permanent resi- dents as distinct from thi mere Auernants, — to use a conycment gallicism to describe those dwellers in Northern climes who winta in the South, for which we have no exact equivalent, — ( uo society r¢scmbles that of Simla, Naim Tal, and othe: fashionable hiunts of Indian sveicty, 80 large 15 the infusion of the ofhcial and military element For socwty here his a decidedly officadl tonc, and intro- ductions ae advisable at English or Amarican visitors wish to take part in the social life of the phu, with 1ts innu- merable gactis and cntertunments of all kinds, — from moonhght donkey-11des to the Pyrimnids, to Incycle gym- khanas at Ghesich, and fancy diess balls at Shepheard’s and the Continental In Cuno, however, the visitors at the principal hotcls form a socicty of than own The hotel clumcnt, too, n Curo 15 a factor of greater importance in the sociil hte of the forcign community (for the obvious fact that the Anglo-American winter colony ale foreigners 18 too often ignored) than at Canncs, Monte Carlo, Beaulieu, Pau, Algiers, Florence, and other fashion- ablo winter resorts, partly because the class of visitors who at these stations would be mchned to live haughtly aloof f the cosmopolitan crowd who throng the hotels in isolated villas, at Cairo frequent the fashionable hotels. Villas, deed, at Cairo are so scarce as to be practically

unobtainable, as the only available ones are, as a rule, 12

CAIRO IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT 128

occupied by the famılıes of the corps dıplomatıque, English officers stationed at Cairo, high government officials, ete. In Egypt, indeed, the aristocratic dahabiyah may almost be sud to take the place of the villa

In a sketch, then, of fashionable Cairo in the nineties, mor plominence must be given to the hotels than would be mecessary m most forcizn watering-placex The must fashion ible are, undoubtedly, the Continental! she phe ard’s, ud Ghezireh Pilacc, whose vistturs lists ulm it suggest a paze out of the * Almina de Gotha” Yet as regards the ehentele cach has a distinct char cter otata own, and it I may attampt a somewhat invidious tash 1 should be m- lined to say that the Continental 14 more pecuharly cxclusive and azistoca itie, while Shephe uts 193 smarter, and the note ot modernity here 19 more insistent As for the Ghenreh Pilace Hotel, it 18 of too recent date to have quired any distinct social chuacteristics ‘The salient leaturcs of these establishments may perhaps, be better undcrstood by comparison with London hotels Phe Con tinental, then, may be compared with the Alexandra or the Albemarle, Shepheard s with the Savoy, and the Ghezireh Palace with the Cecil

The leading hotcls of Caro cın certainly compare favomably with the best hotels of the most fashionable Riviara watermg places Leaving the Unitd states out of the question, 1t 1s, perhaps, hardis zoing too far to say that no extra Curepean citv of the same size offers such 4 wide choice of h gh class and well appointed hotels, s0 well adapted to meet the demands of English travellers, as the City of the Caliphs

The histotical Shepheard s has a world-wide reputation. It must, however, be remembered that not a stone remains of the old Shepheard’s, with 1ts world-renowned balcony, its garden contaimng’the tree under which*General Kleber was assassinated, its lofty rooms, and terraces. The new

124 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

Shepheard’s, completely rcbuilt m 1891, lacks these his torical adjuncts, but the hgh reputation for comfort re- mains, and certunly, in pomt of luxu:y and refinements of civilisation, in the form of eclectic lights, lifts, telc phones, ete , there cin be no compansen No doubt there was a touch of Orwntal romance: and a suggestion of the “Thou sand and Onc Nichts m the time honoured practice which formerly obtuncd at Shephe ud 4, of summoning the dusky attendants hy Clippins the hands but to the mitten cf fact latter diay travclcr the prosuc, but reliable, cdectrnie bel 15 an infimitcly prefer able me ms of communic ition

Shephe uds is pir e ell n e the Amaian hotel, while the Contincntil 19 morc cAclusively Enghsh The latter, too, partakes morc of the charactar of 1 In oh class residen thal hote] its muimerous Cle zantly appomtcd suitcs of private apartments (some twenty sects) bong onc of its leading featur s

Shepheard s Aentele 19 distinctly cosmopolitan Cano being the stuting pomt for the Descit the Mle, and Pal estne, md not fu off the highroiwd to India wd Australia, and also being one of those cities which no self respecting globc-trotter cin afford to omit m his round, it 18 much visited }y passing travellers Those purposing to spend the whole season m € uro would be more likely to go to the Contincntu Pahaps tht mat objection to Shep heard ¢ les in its situation It is undoubtedly very central and easy of accoss but frontins the maim 104d, 1t 18 un- pleasantly noisy and dusty In the old days there were no doubt compensitions in thc moving panoram? of Oriental life which this crowded thorou,hfare presented, — a kalen- dosucopie procession of Bedouin Arabs from the Desert, cages, tattooed negroes, Turks, jewelled pachas ambing past on nchly capariısoned mules, mysterious verled figures, and other fascınatıng aspects of Eastern life, wth a very ahght admiature of the vulgarising (artistically speaking)

CAIRO IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT 125

Turopean element Now, instead of these picturesque, motley crowds, the modern lounger on the tamous terraces looks down upon a yelling crowd of donkey boys, guides, y aters, intcrpicters, dragomans, itincrant dcalcrs im sham mtiqucs, ind all the noisy rabhbie that hve on the travel- lin Briton

Ihe Contincntad Hotcl 1s comparitively rew, while un New Hotel is one of the oldest hotels in Cano, but this instinec ot arate hotel nomenclature is uot confined to Pevpt The Continental 1s: most sumptuor' tec rated, and the appointments in, perhips as invurieus as those Mo the leading hotcls vt the fish onal witen, plaires on the opposite shore of the We diterrancan Special mention should be made of the cxccllcnce of t# san tary urange- ments It is situated in r pnnt put ot the fashionable Fehchiya quarter, neat the Pnehsh chinch, and it 18 a littl out of the way compucd with Shcphcard’s and the New Hotel but it must be coufessed that this comparative remot¢ness of its locality is rezudcd is an additional 1ee- ommendition by many of its patrons

The Ghezuch, Pal uc, the newest ot the Cuno hotels, for- merly hnown 49 “IJsmuls Folly, was ont of the palaces of the lite Khedive Ismul whosc mama itor building pal 1CLS WAS 48 pronounccd 15 thit of the unfortunat King of Brana It was bought by a syndicate from the creditors of the lite cx Ahedise, and 14 now one of the International Palace Hotels —a commcrcial enterprise which 18 a wor- thy rival of the Gordon Hotels nng — belonging to the International Sleeping Car Co It rivals the Continental or Shepheard’s in th costliness of its decoration and the luxury of its appointments Fiom a medical point of view, ita strong points are its delightfully rural and at the same time readily accessible situation, and its sheltered position, which effectually protects visitors from the occasional Khamseen winds, — rare, no doubt, but still to be reckoned

128 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS,

with during the Cairo season The chief drawback to this ambitious establishment is the presence of mosquitoes ın the beginning of the season, owing to the proximity of the Nile. This tends to make the commencement of the sea- gon at this hotel somewhat late: than at the intra-mural hotels. As 1cgaids its visitors, the Ghczineh Palace 15 rather morc cosmopolitin in characte: than the Continen- tal, or even Shephcard’s

Certainly thuie 1s room for an extinamual hotel at Cairo, with its swarms of invalids increasing ycar by year, who invade Leypt for the winter , and it should appeal not only to this numciically important class, but also to sports- men, owing to its vicimty to the race-course and the Sport- ing Club grounds

So much, then, for the thice ladmg Cuno hotels We now come to another fiet-cass hotel The New Hotel was the favomite caracanserae of the cx Khedive Ismail, and it occupies by fir the best situation of my m Caro, facing the Grind Opera House It his had vicissitudes, but has recovered and stood the test of timc , and not being so popular as Shepheard s and the Contmcentil, which are often overcrowded in the haght of the sc ison, 1t might be preferred by invalids and those in nced of rest and quiet- ness Its numcrous scts of uppa rooms cach furnished with an alcoved balcony, might also recommend it to this class of visitors

Mena House, at the foot of the Py1amids, 1s a large and expensive establishment, which has found favour with our compatriots No doubt those with the artistic sense highly developed will enlarge on the enormity of building a huge modern hotel in the midst of such incongruous surround- mgs, in the close vicimty of the immortal Pyramids and the mystic Sphinx, but 1t must be admitted, if I may be allows to act as advocatus diabol:, that if the Pyramids had to be vulgarısed, they could not have been vulgarised

CAIRO IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT. 127

better (01 less) by the English capitalist who 1s responsible for the undertaking. The origin of Mena House (called fiom Menes, the quasi mythical earliest king of Egypt) 1s curious Some seven years ago an Enghshman in delicate health came to Egypt He built a tiny house under the shidow of the Pyramids Finding the ai beneficial, he began to erect 2 small sanatorium, hopmyg that mvalids hike himself ımght 1es01t therc, aud gam a longer leas of hfe But betore the phin was matured he ded Then Mr Locke hing bought the property, and deternuned to start hotel. The undertaking grew indo ins hands, and now Mena House may be considcicd to rank aa onc of the lead- ing hotels im Egypt Mr Locke King, howeset, no longer owns the Mena House, having transferred his interest therun to an English syndicate It w well spoken of, and the rooms are furnished ın good taste It 1s well appointed, ind 1s furnished with a lige swimming-bath, Enghsh bil- tud-table, brary, «te (solf links are also duly adver- tid among its numcrous attractions for visitors, though considering the gencral lay of the desert surrounding the Pyramids, “ sporting bunkers” must be too ple ntiful even for the most determined devotec of the “ 1oyal and ancient game,” and the liying out of anything approaching to a putting-green must have presented almost msuperable diffi- culties There is a resident chaplain and physician.

The Hotel d'Angleterre 18 a favourite resort of English and Americans It 18 a particularly comfortable and well- managed house, and 1s under the same proprietorship as the Continental It has recently been rebuilt, and 1s furnished with all modern conveniences, —hift, electric hight, ete. ; in fact, it 18 a second Continental on a more modest scale, and may be regarded as a succursale or dependance of the parent establishment.

The Hotel Royal may be said to have some claims on the gratitude of Englishmen. Dunng Arali’s rebellion, all

128 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

the hotel keepers, save the landlord of the Royal, decamped Thus, after the victorious campaign, the English officers would have fared bidly had not the doors of the Royal been opn to them This hotel his a good reputation for its cmmne ind moderate charges There remains the well hnown old cstiblished Hotcdl du Nu, hindi apped a httle, howevcr, by its situation clos. to the mulodorcus strect known as thi Muski lhis hotl, wcll known to scholars, hterary men ind I gyptolosists, boasts of 1 famous gu don, one of the most beoiutitul and stuking ın Curo In the opinion of miny of its zucsts, this lovcly pleasure giound, which shuts off ul noises trom the crowded streets quite cumpensites for its proximity to the nitive quarter So much for Canoas a oncat hotel entie The City ot Victory i9 no doubt 1 many sided city, and might be described under many aspects did space permit It 1s a famous historial aty, an ofhoal captal und scat of government in importint zirrison town, ini 2» gicat Oni ental metropolis — in population the sccond aty ım the Turkish Empuc But by most visitors it 19° regarded meicly a4 1 fashionable he lth and pleasure resort, and ıt 18 with Cano an its social aspect thit we arc in this chapter mainly concerned Its vogue 28 an instocritic winter residence for Euro- peans may be sud to dite from the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, when Cairo was boomed, to use a modern phrase, by the Khedive Ismail ior all 1t was worth This prodigal ruler spent literally millions in his cffort to make known to Europeans the attractions and potentialities of his sem-Oriental capital Yct compare Cairo of to-day as a fashionable tourist centre with Cairo of a quar- of a century ago Then the unfinished European qUarter had the appearance of a hastily run-up suburb = It was thought a wonderful achievement to light the Ezbe- kiya quarter with gas Now many of the streets, and all

CAIRO IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT. 129

the large hotels, are lit with electricity, and electric tram- cars run through the main thoroughferes. It is even proposed to drain the picturesque but highly insalubrious and malodorous Khahg Canal, which 1uns through the heart of the city from Old Cairo to Abbasich, and lay an chcte tramway along its bed No doubt wæstiutx (ourists wall rave at this utilitartan and vandalistie trans formatin, but the more thoughthul will not regret that What 1b virtually an open sewer should be converted into a hoad highway calculated to benefit the t enuug Carene population ‘The Egyptians, it mity Pe remarked, take very Kindly to the now method ot locomotion, so much so that in the elctuctrams aheady runtang Europeans ire quite crowded out by natives

Visitors to Caro may be roughly divided into three dassies, — sightscers and tourists, waiter residents and 80- ot} people generally, alun to the tashionable crowds who gravitate annually to Cannes, Monte Carlo, Mentone, and vther Riviera towns, and invalids, — the latter class, how- «ver, less numerous in Cano itself than formerly. To these may be added a Jcaven of artists, littrary people, Lzyptologists, studcnts, etc

The first class 18 numcrically of most importance, but tourists, as a rule, have little tame, and probably less meli- nation, for taking pait in the social hfe of the Anglo-Amer- ican colony, and are not ambitious of being thought to be “in the movement.” The winter residents, along with the ofheial community, — Enghsh officers attached to the army of occupation and the Egyptian army, government officials and their famihes, etc.,—torm the Anglo-American col- ony Cairo 18 indeed emphatically a society place, and, of late years especially, as an amstocratic winter-resort it ranks with Cannes or Monte Carlo. Perhaps the tone of society more nearly resembles Nice or Monte Carlo than the ultra-aristocratic and exclusive Cannes, smartness being

130 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

the prevalent note of its winter residents. From January to April there 1s ene unceasing round of balls, dinner par- ties, picnics, gy mbhhanas, and othe: social functions

Inteilizent sizhtsecing or the study of Egyptian anti quitics 18, no doubt, apt to be undertaken ın a decidedly perfunctory manne: by the winter residents The Necrop ols of Memphis, tor imptancc, 19 rezardcd mainly as 4 conveni nt site for a picnic, and the Py: umids or Heliopolis as a goal for 1 bicycling or riding cxcursion = Bicycling 1s now a particularly populir wunusement in the City of the Cahphs, and the sight of an Amaan or Lnghsh gnl bicycling down the Mooska, preceded by 1 1unning footman (syce) to leu the way, miy pahaps provoki a smile from her compatriots at the stuthing meoongiuity Ihis 15 only one imstance, however, of the sti image Contr ists between the litest devclopment of Luropcin civilisation and fash 10ndble culture and the old world Ori nt ism so constantly scen in Cano ol to dıy

Aiter all, in the © uro season “ distractions” and social dissipations of all kinds, not to speak of the ordinary urban amuse ments in the form of concerts, the ities, and prome- nadcs, follow so unce wingly that there 1s somc cxcuse for the neglect of the regulition sights and antiquities When it 18 the case of a bicycle gymbhina, a polo match at the Turf Club ground, or a liwntnms tournament at the Ghezireh Pilace, or a visit to a gloomy old temple, it 18 perhaps only natural with young pcople that the ancient monuments should go to the wall

The ofhcial balls and receptions at the Khedivial Palace or the Biitish Agency are functions which demand more than an incidental notice The Buiitish Agent gives at

ast a couple of large batls during the season, and the

me hospitality 1s offered by the hhedive In addition to these official entertainments, several important semi- official dances are given by the British officers quartered

CAIRO IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT 131

at Cairo The invitations to the Khedive’s hall are m- v uiably sent to the foreign visitors through their Mimsters or Consuls, and as everybody in Cano secms to regard a tuket almost as a right, there 1s uccasionilly a certain amount of friction between the accredited 1 prcsentatives of the different Powers and the Ahedive's oflicers

It cannot be said thit the present Khedive, or the ofh cers of ms houschold entrusted with the dcleate tank of Issuing the mvititions, alwys maumfest the pose eon of snor fare o a mu sense of diplomacy According to a wll wthenticated story, the Khedive ene returned the United States Consul General s list of visitors to whom he | posed imvitations to bc sent, with an observation to the fect that only those of noble birth were ehib The C'on- sul promptly replied that cvery Ameri in citizcn considered hims lf a king m his own right [his hiought the auto- cratic Khedive to his bewings, ind not only was the list Pissed, but 1t15 921d that mvititions were scnt besides to all the guests at Shc phe ird’s Hotel en bloe

The scason in thc fashionible world 18 a short one, ex- tending from Januiry to Apul The flight of the Euro- pean visitors in this month 18 soon followed by the exodus of the official colony, and other permanent residents, to Ramleh and othcr summer refuges The Khedive and his court leave for Alexandria usually about the bc ginning of May, and this departure of the titular sovereign marks formally the close of the Cairo season

CHAPTER IX. THE BAZAARS AND STREFI LIFE

VISIT to the bazaars 18 one of the most instructive and entertaining, as well as the pleasantest, forms of killing time which Cano offers to visitors But the great charm of this excursion 1s lost, if it 16 simply regarded a» one of the items in the dis programme of sightseeing The only way to appreciate the native bazaars, and to get sume insight into Cano strect-lie, 1s to form no fixed plan tor the disposal of timc, and to mike no itinerary, and certainly to dispense with a guide or drigoman It 18, how ever, decidedly advisable, before stuting, to get some idea of the confusing topography of the bazaar quarter fiom a good map The boundarns of the bazaar tcwion can, how ever, easily be mastered, and there need he no fear of losins one’s way, eyen m the appucnatly mextricable labyrinthine maze of narrow lancs and alleys whieh make up the native quarter, for it i» intersected by two main thoroughfares, and has fairly well-marked boundaries One of these, gen- erally known as the Suk en-Nahhassin, from its prineipal bazaar, 18 called by different names, according to the bazaar which abuts on it. It ıs one ot the narrowest and oldest, but most important, of the Cairo strects, and extends north and south from the El-Hakim Mosque, near the Bab-en- sr, to the Boulevard Mehemet Ah, the modern highway which runs direct from the Edbekiya Square to the Citadel. The other main street is the Rue Neuve, a continuation of the Mooski, and usually called by the name of the latter. 132

THE BAZAARS AND STREET LIFE. 188

The Mooski was the old Frankish quarter before Ismailia hult the modern European district, 1adiating from the Kvbehiya Square. Some of the bazaars cluster round large covered market-places called khans, of which the khan Khalil and Khan Ghamahyeh are the most unportant. 4s I have said, the best way of exploring the bazaars is to have no prearranged plan or programme Hurned toarists, howeves, who might naturally consider this a couns) of per- tection, will find that the most satisfactory and t .)« ditious method of domg the bazaars 14 to make the Sub «n-Nahhas- sin street a hind of movable base md putred northward o southward from its intersection with thi Mouert

The havaars are considcred by some travellers to be leas Onental m aspect, and to have lese ot the Eastern atmus- phere and local colour about them than those of Damascus ; md Bædeker considers them mfenor even to those of Con- stantinople

As in all Onental cities, each bazar 18 confined, as a ruk, to the sale of one class of goods, or products of a cer- tam district. There are, {or imstancc, the bazaars of the Soudan, Tunis, Red Sea Littoral, Morocco, ete

The Khan Khalil was built in 1292, by the famous Mameluke Sultan, El-Ashrat, the conqueror of Acre. it is om the site of the Tombs ot the Caliphs This 18 the chief emporium for carpets, Lugs, and embroidered stuffs. Open- WW auctions take place on the mornings of Monday and Thursday, which are very amusing to watch, — the dellalin (appraisers), the prototypes of the porters of modern sales by auction, carrying among the crowd the articles put up, and crying out the bids as they are made. In one part of the khan ıs a place reserved for dealers ın brass and copper goods,

Crossing the street Suk-en-Nahhassın, we come to the Suk-es-Saigh (gold and silversmiths’ bazaar), a much-fre- quented resort of tourists. The workmanship and quality

184 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

of the trinkets have greatly deteriorated of late. In fact, old Cairo residents among the foreign colony declare that many of the jewels have a Palais Royal or Birmingham origin.

Continuing northwards, and turnmg to the right, we reach the Gamaliych (camel-diivers’) quarter Here are the shops of the Red Sea traders. Very inferior goods are usually only obtamable herc, the chief commodities being m- cense, perfumes, spices, mothc1-of-peail, and attai of roses The latter 19 s0 much diluted that ıt 15 almost worthless, a small flask being sold for a fiance or so, which would cost at least a pound if pure The northern continuation of the stieet forms the ceoppersmiths’ bazaar, and here are also booths for the sale of pipes, cimu holders, amber, nar ghi- lehs, chiıbouques, and other artı les for smokers Retracıng our steps to the stuting-puint, and crossing the Rue Neuve. —as absurdly named as New College at Oxford, for it 18 one of the oldest streets, — we reach the once tlourishing Suk-es-Sudan, which, though mentioned in the guide-books, no longer exists, since the Soudan has been practically closed to traders In this quarter aie also the booksellers’ bazaar, of little interest, and the Suk-el-Attarin (spices, perfumes, etc ), one of the most characteristic bazaars.

Unfortunately, the articles in the bazaars mostly visited by strangers me often ather infernor imported goods from Europe, — jewelry from Birmingham, carpets from Brus- sels, haiks and silk goods from Nîmes or Lyons, cotton stufis from Manchester, etc ,— or cheap and showy bric-a- brac and sham curios, manufactured to meet the factitious dcmand of tourists. In fact, many of the shops bear a striking resemblance to the Oriental stalls at international

hibitions. Genuine Oriental goods can, however, be

ught at the picturesque Suk-el-Fahhamin, behind El- Ghuri Mosque, a favoarite haunt of artista and others appreciative of local colour. Here are to be found rugs,

THE BAZAARS AND STREET LIFE 186

bernouscs, Fez caps, saddle-bags, and other artacles, from Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco With 1egard to purchases, bargaining is of course, NECESS ALY xen if the towst is mexpencuced and igno- rint of the value of Oricntal wares, he might better trust to his own powers of bargaining than allow a pude or mter preter to intarvenc The sll, rt must be remembered, his x different price for cach customer as a rut Scasunred travellers in the Last lay down the axiom that th prospec tive buycr should, as ır rule offer halt whit w asked, when ad hai.un can be struck midway botween th two prices Lhe objection to this ¢ sphtting the difference os that the calers are fully aware of this rule, and rus the original puec to cope with it Real bagans cin, however, stall ht obtuned by a visitor who 18 miking a long stay mn Cairo, ind has the necessiry paticnee to go through the tedious Meliminiry negotiitions The winter resident who makes several visits to the bizial quater, and is not in a hurry to spend bhs money, will, sooner or later, get the refusal of really valuable articlis at not very much more than thar market value = When purchasing jewelry, the buyer should see that it has the Government stamp, indicating number of carats Genuine Wushrabiych work (carved wooden latticework) 18 very costly Most specimens sold are imitations, the picces being turncd out in one uniform si7¢ by alithe In the ical article (the most characteristic Cairo industry) each piece 18 irregular, and 1s cut by hand. The best days for the bazaars arc thc market-days, Mondays and Thursdays, and the hours carly m the morning or late in the afternoon Even now, ın this tourist-1:dden native quarter, which 1s apt to be regarded by most strangers in the Nght of an Onental spectacle conveniently arranged for the benefit of European visitors, at the threshold of New Cairo in the Ezbekiya (the hausmannised Cairo of Ismail), ın bar-

186 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

gaining for the more costly wares, the time-honouted On- ental methods pievul The negotiations are hedged round with a certain amount of ceremony which 1ecalls the stately fashion ın tht Arabian Nights, when the purchase of a brass tray or an cmbroidcied saddle cloth was a solemn treaty, and the barzun for a lamp 2 diplomatic event not to be li-htly undutikcn or huiricdly concluded by ether of thi izh contracting, parties Lhose who ac anxious to imbibe the Oruntil + atmosphere” will, no doubt, be morc inclined to tolaate the long md tedious process of chalama, considcred an mdispcnsable pre limmary to i pudhise thm the ordmuy matter ot fact tourist Native manners and customs, and the multifarious phases of € urcene hfe for asm all Oncntal countrics, the mhahitants live and carry cn th i vy uieus occupations and avoeitions m the open an as much as possible, and the Cairene is we great ov sun worslnyy 2 as the Neapolitan — are of course, best obscrve Loin the a gion of the bazaars The Fl Wuayyad Bazin behind th mosque of that name, 18 a paticulaly zood field tor the scuehcr after local colour Ihis is peculruly i native maut and less of a tourist 15316 thin most of the bazius

But, for broad spectaculu effects, the visitor must be take himself to the Mooshi, the most chu ictaustic thorough fare of Caro Herc 1 stranze amilzam of Listein and Western lite bursts upon the spectitor 6 astompshed gaze, and here, indccd, the Toast shikes hands with the West” This living dierami, formed by the brilliant and eve: shift- ing crowd, 15, in its way, unique <A gieater variety of nationalities 1s collected here thin even in Constantinople, the most cosmopolitan city, in a spectacular sense, in Eu-

e, and in this great carnival one secms to meet every

tume of Europe, Asia, and Africa „Let us stand aside and watch this motley throng of all races and nationalities pouring along this busy highway The haleidoscopic vari-

THE BAZAARS AND STREET LIFE. 187

ety of brilliant colour and fantastic costume 15 a little bewil- dering to the stranger. Solemn and impassi c-looking Turks, gently ambling past on gaily caparivoned mules, gy innmg negroes from the Sondan, melancholy -looking fel lahs in their scanty blue haitans, cunning-fe atured Levan tins, green-turbaned Shercefs, and picturesque Bedoun + from the deseit, stalking pist in ther flowmg bernouses, make up the mass of this restless throng. A sahhah, or wata Carier, carrying his picturesque goatskim ‘lled with Nile water, still finds 1 sale tor his disks in spate ot the pub- lie fountains, while among other dramatis poreme of the \talian Nights are the vendors of sweets and all kinds of edibles Interspersed, and giving vavety of eanu to this living kinetoscope, are gorgeously arrayed Ji wessen, herce- looking Albanians, thor many -coloured nashi s bristling with wcapons, and petticoated Giecks Then, as a restful relef ty this blaze of colour, appears a wint group of Egyptian Jadies, — “a bevy of fan damsels richly dight,” no doubt, but thei faces, as well as then rich attire, concealed under the mevitable yashmak and voluminous haih Such are the dlements in ths mammoth masguerade which make up the brillant and varied picture of Cairene street-life. These are, no doubt, the aspects which force themselves on the notice of the most unobservant tourist, and are among the impresyions of every scribbling globe-trotter. Less obvious 18 the “ charm of endless contrasts, — not chro- matic alone, but contrast of race, feature, form, costume, attitude, occupation, movement, mood This it 18 that makes the magic of the marvellous Eastern oity for the Western eye. Nor is the medley of manners less striking than the hotch-potch of races and the tangle of tongues.” The Oriental justifies the popular Western conception of gravity and impassiweness of demeanour. Plenty of these types abound, but there are others, — souvent homme varie. “In one form he treads the roadway with the majesty of

138 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Haroun Alraschid; in another, he scampers through the streets like a Parisian gamin. The features of that vener- able pipe-merchant are as unemotional as a Red Indian’s; but if the purchaser, who is haggling with him for the abatement of a pastre, were pleading for the life of his only child, the passionate, suppliant expression of his coun- tenance would more than satisfy the dramatic requirements of the situation.” Thus are the salient features of the Cairo streets amusingly and cleverly hit off by Mr. H. D. Traill, in hi» “ Impressions de Voyage,” recently published under the title “+ From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.”

CHAPTER X THE MOSQUES

T must be admitted thit mosques are not cr great intrest, from the casuil sight seers point of view, wing to their uniformity ind se oie stnpl ty of doagn, laoh, however, harmonises well with the almost complete bnce of ritual in Moslem worship Fhe Cuef features uc m open court (sahn) with a fountam or cistern in the middle, surrounded by 1 covercd clomster (hwan) The moe sacred part of the bulding (maksu), corr sponding to the chon of an Enghsh c ithcdral, 18 often screened off trom the rest of the buldme Here the tomb of the founder 18 usually placed lIn the ecntic of this sanctuary 18 the niche (mihrab or kibla) showing the direction of Mecca, and the pulpit (mimbar)

The visitor should i¢membcr the names of these princi- pu portions of a Mohammedin temple, if he wishes to obtain an intelligent grasp of Moslem cc clcsiastical archi- tictuie Archeologically speaking, the most correct mosque in Cairo 1s Amzu, which wll be deserbed later in the chap- ter devoted to Old Cairo and the Coptic churches This is the orginal and normal type of mosque, the best example of which must not, however, be sought in Cairo, but in Cordova, the mosque cathedral there being considered to be the most perfect and best-preserved specimen of this form of Saraceme art mm exiwtence In Cairo the only Mosques, besides Amru, which strictly follow the orthodox pattern, are Ihn Tulun and the University Mosque, El- Azhar.

140 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

There are over three hundred mosques in Cairo, — indeed, it 18 said by the Arabs that, as in the case of the churches of Rome theic 18 one for cyery dav of the year, — but most arc in ruins a large numbc1 have heen devoted to secular purposes, ind there remain scuccly over a score that cven the most conscientious sight seer would carc to explore In some of the lugo mosques, such as the Kiliun, a whole sroup of public tu ldings ue comprised Besidcs the mosque proper, there will be found a hospital school court of justice monastary Hbruy etc In short the mosque miy be pid to surve as a hind of embodiment of the national hie

o of the lirzest mosques in Cano 1s Muristan Kalaun It 1s not strictly 2 mosyuc but a hospital, ind is now m 4 ruinous condition The mosque tomb of the founder, ad joining is a much frequented shiime of thi poorer classes whe firmly believe m the curative prepat» of the col umns of the prayer niche which they ac iwcustomcd to hek Ccrtun iches of the Sultan ue prescived herc, which, of course possess equally mu wulous powers im the eycs of the dgvout These anti juit s— 2 turban and sash of the Sultan Kalaun— cannot it nccd hardly be said, be shown to strangers

The adjoming mosque 1s comparatively unintcresting , but the next one (Barkuk) winch contains the tombs of the wife and daughtcr of the Mameluke Sultan Barkuk, should be visited,if only to see the exquisite workmanship m bronze of one of the doors Thc tomb of the Sultan himself, whose body would be thought to be desecrated 1f placed in the same building as that of his wife, 1s buried in th. Tomb Mosque Barkuk, in the Eastern Cemetery

Inggne of the most striking features of the Kalaun may be seen a trace of Gothic influence introduced by the Cru- saders This ıs the beautiful arched doorway, which was brought from a Chiistian church at Acre built by the

THE MOSQUES. 141

Crusaders. This archway is a fine specimen of. English architecture, and Mr. Stanley-Poole pertinently observes that it would not be out of place in Salisbury Cathedral.

For beauty of decoration this mosque must, however, veld the palm to the twin mosques of Kait Bey, especially the one in the Eastern Cemetery (usually, but erloneously, known as the Tombs of the Caliphs) The exterior is unequalled among the monuments of the Arabic at of Cairo tor richness and variety of decoration. The delicate scrollwork and tracery of the tawn-coloured dome, and the gracetul pagoda-hke minarets, are familiar to every traveller. The interior has httle decoration of any kind. Possibly this was intentional, to mark a place of sepulture, for Kait Bey 1s buried here. In the sister mosque within the walls, the highly elaborate decoration of the interior offers a strong contrast. This moggue, owing, probably, to its not being prominently mentigned in the guide-books,-— for the average tourist rarely strikes out an independent line for himsclf, —or perhaps because it is a little difficult to find, 1s seldom visited. Yet this mosque is one of the most characteristic in Cairo, and should on no account be neglected. lt has been restored in good taste by the Commission for the Preservation of Arabic Monuments.

This admirable Society, which receives an annual subsidy of no more than £4,006 from the State, has done excel- lent work since its institution by the late Khedive Tewfik in 1881. It carries out all necessary renovations under the old established, but somewhat cumbrous, Wakfs Ad- ministration, the Department which has the charge of all the mosques, corresponding in some respects to the Minis- try of Public Worship in the French Republic, or to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in Great Britain. This body depends for its income, apart from the State convention,

142 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

on the entrance fee of two piastres, which 1s levied on strangers for each mosque —s In this ancient corporation is vested all ceclesiistical property in Egypt, in fact, next to the hhedive, the Church, 1f such a word my be uscd in connection with a heathen faith, wis the richest ] mdloid in Igypt If a man died without immcdiite issuc his piopaty wont to the ne wrest mosque — in practiec to the Wahkf, and rf ns next of hin dumed it, he would have to pay an cnormous puccntize of the vuue to the Adiminis trition im order to 1edcam his mhoritince — Then i tthe was obligatory on evcry head of afamily Consequently, as Mr Richud Dawcy observes in his exhaustive work on ‘The Sultan md Ins Subjects? Mohiunmedanism thou,h it had no re zuluty cndowed priesthood wis as 1ichly fur nished with this worlds .oods as the Church in I ngland before the Reformation In theory the Church devoted her vast weilth to the pon t) ¢ducation ind chanty the service and proscivation ¢f the m sju s md to the mun tenance of the preichais attendints, uid other officius of ‘the mosques But the practice wais fu worse thin the worst which Hemy the Tizhths Visitors discovered in the monastanics betore the old order was swe; t way, as may be secn by 9 visit to most of the mosyues whose restoration has not becn taken in hind by the Commission for the Picscrvation of Arabic Monumcnts Now of course, since the removal of Ismail from the viceroyalty by the Sultan, at the demand of the Groit Powers, and the appointment of an Lyoghsh Comptroller: of the Exchequer, under the title of Financial Adviser to the Ahedive, the powers of the Wakf corporation have been much curtailed, and the collection, and to a large extent the expenditure, of this revegue 1s controlled by the State

FM visiting the Kalaun, it 1s worth while to turn aside mto one of the picturesque alleys branching off from the Sharia (street) en-Nahhassin,— the great mosque thor-

THE MOSQUES 148

oughfare, though a narrow street, according to modern notions, — and make one’s way to a small but beautifully decorated mosque, called Abu Behr As thc gunde-books bucly mention it, the ordiniry tourist misses it, but a visit will be well repaid The exrqusitc marble mosaics ire almost unequalled in Cano (reat pams have buen tiken in the restorition of this mosquc by Herz Bey, the architect of the Wikfs Admunistritiom, who has earned out the work with the m st scrupulous fidelity to the Hiinal plan The result 1g an architectural gem, as pleasing to the cye as its uchrologically corrcet

LI Ghuri, near the Attua Bazaar is ancther mosque Winch 1s not visited as muh wit das ives Ihe restor- ities carried on hare Fy the Ancient Monuments Com mission also reflect considerable credit on this body

The mosque known a» [1 Tissincn is dedicated to the two sons (ELissccn ind Hissin) of Ali the son in law of Mohimmced, ind in the cyes of devout Mcsloms it conse quently posscesscs poculiar sanctity = It has becn entirely chwlt nd ın modi rn style ind lizhted throughout with is to the dismay of artists and arch ecologists In spite of this agressive note of m)le:mty this mosquc, as the burial place of the head of [fissecn (one of the most vencrated saints in the Mohammedan ec ilendar), 13 much frequented ly the Cairenes and the Festival of the Molid (buthday) of the two saints cclebrated here 18 the most important after that of the Prophet ‘The Khedive visits the mosque 1n state, followed by thousands of the populace, who throng the building till mdmght The illumimations of the mosque and surrounding bazaars arc magnificent « There ıs no scene ın Carro which reminds one more forcibly of the Arabian Nights,’ says that gh authority, Murray In the Mosque Siti Zenab, generally known as the “Women’s Mosque,” at the other end of the city, 18 buried Zenab, the sister of the Hassanen It 18 elaborately

144 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

decorated and has a great wealth of coloured glass, but the restorations have not been tastefully carried out, and “the miature of Turkish decoration with the modern style of architecture does not produce a pleasing effect ”

The ihn Pulun Mosque, like the mosque in the Place du Gouverncincnt at Algiers, and the Agia Sofia (St Sophia), of Constantinopl, was designed by a Christian architect and 13 said to be 1 copy of the Kaaba it Mcecs The onginal idea of Sultan lulun (thi founder of the ‘Tulunide dynisty, 1 D 868% to 895) wip to build ı mosque which should vic with thit of Acronan (Tumsit) im the number of 1t3 columns, tiken is Wis usual with the Arab mosque builders, from the rums of Grech md Romin temples Fortunately he rcnounced this vandilistic scheme ‘The columns of the aches which form 1 colonnide shi ting the sidcs of the comt are ot bich instead of stone The pointed arches rec ull the Norman style of architecture, ind M: Lance Poole declares that this mosque constitutes the first cxampl¢ of thc employment of pointcd uches through out a wholc building, for thai adoption in Ln land did not tike place till some three hundicd yeurs liter An absurd number of traditions uc ittached to the building, which, accordinz to some chiomclcrs, 1s built on the site of the “Burmng Bush, whic the Ahnighty conversed with the Patriarch Moses, as well as the site of Abraham’s saciificc, and the landing-place of the Ark The fact that Ihn Tulun 1s, neat to Amiu Mosquc, the oldest in Cairo, perhaps explains the wealth of legendary lore which clus- ters round this venerable ruin Owing to its ruinous state, the mosque 18 of more interest to the historian or Egypt- ologist than the ordinary travelle: Its exterior view bears a cu1ous resemblance to a dismantled fortress

a. Mosque El-Azhar is umque among the Cawene mosques It is the largest Moslem university in the world, and perhaps the oldest of any university, Chmstian or

THE MOSQUES 146

Mohammedan, the old mosque having been set apart for purposes of study towards the cnd of the tenth ccntury Over cleven thousand studcnts, drawn from every Moham- medan country, arce said to be “inscribed on the books,” ind the professors number over thice hundied The edu- cational methods might, ın the present-day vernacular, be termed undenominitionil, for all the chef Moslem sects uc represented in this tiuly catholic institution Innu- mciable Chunbars uc pirtitioncd off among the colonnades tE tha Great Court, which correspond to the side chapels ini Christian cathedral, euch of which seves as tho Ice ture hall of natives of è pati ular country, these rep- iosent the colleges cf the university On Hiiday, the Mohammedan Sibbith, no teaching takes plice, and as this 15 1ts most silicnt de ature, travellers should take care (o choose some otha day for thon visit The authorities do not cncourage the presence of pti inzers, and, pace the ude books, admuttince is not always pricticable Some 4 the sects arc decidedly fanitic ul, and strangers will be wll advised to abstain from iny ovcit cxprcssion of amuse- ment at the cvtriordiniry specticle of some thousands of students, of all agis, 1¢pcating verses of the Koran in a curious monotone, while swaying thei bodics from side to side, — supposcd to be in aid to memory The Mosque Sultan Hissin 13 4 magnificent building of the palmy days of Arab art, and, on account of its grand proportions and splendid decorations, 18 called by the Cai- renes the “superb mosque” lt ıs said to have cost over £600,000 The mosque may, m a scnx, be considered the national mosque of Cairo, and 1s attended by the Khe- dive on the occasion of any great religious function The building, too, has often served as a kind of meeting-place* of the natives, in times of public disturbance, and has always been the rallying-place of demagogues and oppo- nents of the Government, notably at the time of the Arabi

146 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

revolt in 1881. The body of the Sultan, who was assassi- nated in 1361, lics in a mausoleum which is crowned with a magnificent dome one hundied and eighty feet high.

The Mameluke sovereigns were great mosque-builders, and it will be noticed that many of the mont interesting mosques date fiom the end of the thirteenth century to the „beginning ot the sixteenth (when the Ottoman sultan, Selim 1IL., conquered Cairo), which synchronises with the golden age of the two Mameluke dynasties.

The following description of this majestic building will give an idea of its enormous pioportions .

« The outer walls of this stitcly mosque are neaily a hundred feet m height, and they ae capped by a cornice thnteen feet high, pro jecting sıx feet, formed of stalactite, Which has ever since been a marked feature in Arabian architecture. The arches of the door- ways and of the numerous windows, and even the capitals of the columns, ave similarly enriched Ihe picat doorway in the north- ern side 15 situated m a recess sixty sıx fect an height The mina- ret, gracefully converted from a square at its base to an octagon in its upper part, 19 the loftiest ın existence, measurmg two hundred and eighty feet ”?

Unfortunately, this noble fabric is in a very ruinous con- dition, and instead of restoring it, the late Khedive devoted his energies and his purse to the building of a new mosque adjoining, which was intended to rival the other. So far as can be judged at present, — for it is still a long way from completion, — the Sultan Hassan Mosque is not likely to be eclipsed by the new one, known as the Mosque of the Rifaiya, a particularly fanatical order of dervishes, corre- sponding in some respects to the Aissoua sect of Algeria.

Perhaps one of the most attractive mosques is that ey known as Ibrahim Agha, or by tourists, “ The

e-tiled Mosque.” Its official title is Kher-bek, as it was built by this renegade Mameluke, who afterwards (1517)

1 The Art Journal, 1881.

THE MOSQUES 147

became the first Pacha of Egypt under the Ottoman sul- tans On this account it 15 not surprising that the Cairenes have not wished to perpetuate the name of this traitor, and prefer to call the mosque after Ibrahim Ayha, who en- largcd and stored ıt in 1617 The mtnmor is well deseribcd by Colonel Plunk« tt m his shght but charming httle brochure, * Wilks mm Cairo”

The yiulted colonnade on the cast side resta on masene pis, and between them glows the nch blne ot the tiles which cova: the wall they ar set in panels, though somewhit nregularly, and with some scrious paps, where, doubtless unscrupulous collectors have cbtamc valuable spe imens by the aid of dishonest guardians = I’he effect depends greatly on the lizht by which the mosque 18 seen, fut as always rich ind striking, the open court, too, with it~ httle garden of palms and othcr trees in the ecntre, and the graceful minaret rising above thc ercnelated wall, 18 ya attractive, and has, especially towards sunset, a pecu- huly quet and heautitul appearance

kl Hakım 18 one of the lugest mosques of Cairo, as well as the oldest (afta Amru, Tulun, and 11 Azhar), but it 18 ina dcplorably rumous condition The mosque 18 umque, as bemg the sole onc provided with a makhara (an exter- nal platform, not to be confounded with a minaret), on which incense 1s burned on important festivals It 18 visitcd chicfly as the temporary house of the Museum of Aribic Ait

In most cases, the best mov ble decorations and fittings of the mosques, such as the carved mihrab, bronze doors, en- amclled lamps, woodwork, etc , have been removed fiom the mosques and preserved in the Arab musuem Most visi- tors would, no doubt, prefer to see these objects in stu, but the authorities are certainly justified in their action; for there 18 no doubt that most of the more artistic objecta in the mosques would have been sold, sooner or later, to

148 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

strangers and collectors by the mosque guardians, and what escaped thei rapacity would soon have been spoiled by neglect For miny ycais the objects in this unique collection were stoned away in one of the mosque build ings, Without any attempt at systematic or chionological arrang¢ ment, and wore lost to most visitors, but reccntly the authoritics hive hid the objicts carefully arranged md suicntifically ertuloozucd In a subsequent chapter this magnificcnt collection will be described at some length

Though, neat to the bizans, the mosques uc, im the opmion of the guides and dy agomins, the clucf sights of Cairo, it must be allowed that the ordinary visitor will find a whole day devoted soldly to these Moslem temples somewhat tcdious It 18 certainly adsvisible to combine the excuision to the mosqucs with some other kind of sightseang Howescr, whateva the tastes of the tray eller, I think the mosques described bove are turly repre sentative spccimens of Moslem architecture

IT have sud nothing of the mosquis of the Citadel, but these will be ticatcd of m the chapter ın which I pro pose to describe the Caucnc Aciopohs. J

CHAPTER XI TH! TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS

HE Tombs of the Caliphs are a remarkably interesting group of mausvlea, strictly mostue-tombs, sttuated outside the walls, a littl. north ot the Citade: They are easily reached by the Mooskhi ind Rue Neuse These tu bs have no connection with the Caliphs, lut as the nudes mvanably employ this designation, it has naturally | cn adopted by visitors The Caliphs havc no separate turial place, and, 1n fact, most of their tombs ın the varı- is mosques of the city have been destroyed As the t mb mosque of Kait Bcy 16 the most important m this necropolis, 1t 18 often callcd by ( urenes the Cemetery of hat Bry It also xocs by the name of the Eastern Cem f1y Lhe Sultins buried here bclong to the Circas- nın Mameluke dynasty, and most of the tombs date from the fiftenth century They aic, for the main part, ın a urrbly dılapıdated condition the Wahfs Adminstration xem to have recognised the impossibility of restoring them properly with the funds at their disposal, and have, perhaps wisely, made no attempt at restoration, except in the case of one o1 two of the more important ones The title Caliph, in connection with the various Mo- hammedan dynastics in Egypt, 18 often used loosely by those who have written thur history Caro was never, according to the orthodox view of Mohammedans, the scat of the Caliphate, though some of the Arab rulers, who were strictly viziers, or viceroys, usurped the title 1t-

self as well as ita functions Up to 750 4 p, Dathascus 149

150 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

was the seit of the Caliphate Then Bagdad, under the Abbasside dynasty , and finuly, on the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks undc: Sultan Selim, Constantinopk became the titular city of the Cahph, and has remained so down to the prcsent time It ıs true, however, that during the lato Arab dynasties in Lzypt the actual Caliph was occasionally under the virtual protcetion of the I zyp tian sultin, and Cano was the residence of thi fainéant Commander of the Laithtul The last of these nominal Caliphs diudin Tevpt about 1l> 7A D

It is important then to distinzuish hetween those who were Caliphs de fx ¢ mercy and those who were both de facto ind de jn success ts (14 Mohammed which 1s thé strict interpretition of the much bused team C ivhph

What mht be called the historical instinct would be requned for a deu comprehension of the mtrcate suc cessicn of dynastics who conticlicd the destinies of Lay pt from its conquests by Amu the zencril of the Caliph Omar (a genuine Caliph) m 16.55 down to thc invasion by the ‘Lurks in 1917 when Ixzypt was 1¢duccd to a méire pachalic of the Ottomin Tmpie — Lhe most m portant of these dynasties wore the Abbassides, f atimites Ayyubides, and the Maimclukcs Pehaps the former 13 the most familu to the general 1c1dc1, as it was to this dynasty that om old find H uoun Al Raschid belonged The Fatımıtes form a Mhizhly ımportant landmark in our rapid survey of Mohimmedin | sypt, as the fyst of these sovereigns founded the city of Masr El hiabira (modern Cairo), transferring the seat of government from Fostat to the “City of Victory ”

The Ayyubide dynasty 1s noteworthy from its founder,

ah-Ed-Deen, known to ug as Saladin, who at first ruled in the name of the then incapable Caliph In 1169 Saladin usurped the supreme authority of the Caliphate, though by the orthodox Mohammedans this was considered to be

THE TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS, 151

still vested in the representative of the deposed sovereign ot the Abbasside dynasty, whose throne had been usurped by the fımous Ibn Tulun The dynasty of thc Ayynbides, foundcd by this twelfth century Napoleon, lasted nearly i ccntury,— 2 respectable age for a medieval Feyptian dynisty and dung this period the Caliphs of Bagdad, Who were still reckoned 1 the spiritual he ids of Islam, were unable to cacicise even a show of sovcietenty im tempor attans The cri of Saladin, during s hih Egy pt Wis transformed from 1 vissil province into in empire, 18, of course, familiar to all of us But thou u best known m count of the long strupzle with the C1usilers and the nquest of Jerusalem these ue only i put of Saladin’s thevements ¢ Te made his powa flt 9 writes Mr Stanley Lanc Pook, * far beyond the borders of Palestine, his ums trumphed ova: hosts of valant princes to the binks of the Tiztis and when he died in 1198, at the age t fifty seven, he left to his sòns md kinsmen, not only the cvample of the most chivalrous honow wle, ind magnan- tmous of kings, but substintiil Iczacics of rich provinces, tending from Aleppo and Mesopotamia to Arabia and the Countiy of the Blicks With the rise of the Maimcluke Sultans, who established then rule over Lzypt for the unpicecdentcd period of two hundred and seventy cizht years we enter upon a hind of Tcnaissance in art ind lite: iture, in spite of the perpetual Wars and yntcrnecine stiugzics between rval claimants to thc throne The question of the Caliphate during this troublous time 18, however, rendered comparatively free from difficulty, as, possibly with the view of conciliating the orthodox Mos- lems, the Mameluke Sultang piotected the successive rep- resentatives of the Abbassyle dynasty (named from Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed), and formally recognised them as nominal Caliphs On the conquest of Egypt by the Otto-

152 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

mans, in 1517, the Turkish Sultan confirmed the claim of the then Abbasside Caliph, and on his death assumed the title. This title has since been claimed by every succes- sive Sultan of Turkey.

Let us now visit the most interesting of these sepulchral monuments.

Kait Bey, Burkuk, and El-Ashraf are considered the show-mosques, and are the only ones visited by the ma- jority of tourists. To visit the latter special permission is necessary. Those fond of architecture are, however, strongly recommended not to confine their attention to the three principal ones.

The mosque of Kait Bey, whose beautiful dome is so familiar in sketches and photographs, is not only incom- parably the finest mosque m this cemetery, but for beauty ranks high among all the innumerable mosques of Cairo. Fergusson, in his famous architectural text-booh, speaks in enthusiastic terms of the elegance of the building:

“ Looked at externally o internally, nothing cin exceed the grace of every pat of this building IHs small dimensions exclude 1t from any claim of grandem, no docs it pretend to the purity of the Greek and some other styles, but as a pertect model of the ele gance we generally associate with the architecture of this people, it 1s, perhaps, unrivalled by anything in Egypt, and faz surpasses the Alhambra, or the Western buildings of its age.”

Two slabs of red and black granite, with a depression of about the size of a man’s foot, will be shown by the guide. Naturally a legend attaches to these curiously formed stones, and they are said to have been brought from Mecca by Kait Bey, and the depression is said to be the impress of the Pyaphet’s foot.

=. far from the Kait Bey Mosque is the large and more imposing tomb-mosque of Burkuk, the first of the Circas- sian Mameluke dynasty who flourished towards the end of

THE TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS 168

tho fourteenth century This mosque can casily be recog- nised by its magnificent twin domes, which mark respec- tivcly the burial-place of the male and female members of the Sultan s family

Ihis style of architecture 1» unusual in Egypt, and, indeed, ceitain fcatures of the building are quite unique among thc Cairo mosques ‘The court 18 surrounded by logmia, which form vely picturesque cloisters Though a grcat part of the building 15 1n ruins, the remu n9 give one an idca of 1t6 magnificcnt proportions “The symmetrical plan of the edifice, its massive masonry, and the symmet- ricat disposition of the rows of pilasters with domes con- s tut: this mosque one of the most perfect cxamples of Arabian architecture ın existence One of the most mtoresting objects 19 thi beautifully chisclled stone-pulpit, purhaps the best specimen of 1ts kind in Cairo, while next to the domes the most noticcable cxtcrnal featurcs are the splendid minarets, the 100f decorated with chevron mouldings

A stmhing feature of this mosque 18 the remains of buildings which scrved as tempor iry dwellings of relatives and friends of the deccascd, the residence of the custo- dian, cte This group of buildings (called Hosh), which corresponds to the precincts in Enghsh cathedrals, are sometimes, a8 in this case, almost as extensive as the mosque itself

Another: mosque worth visiting 1s the tomb of the Sal- tan Barsbey, or in full El-Ashraf Barsbey, a Sultan who carned the unusual distinction of dying a natural death. It 1s smaller than the two mosques described above, and 18 in a ruinous state. .The dome, with its intricate pattern of stone lace-work, 1s very stmking A mosaic pavement in coloured stones 1s much admired by connoisseurs of Ara- bian art. The ornamentation of the dome, with its net- work of arabesques, is very graceful

154 THE CITY OF 1HE CALIPHS

Many other mosques are scattered around, but they usu- ally serve more as a subject fo. the artist than as goals for tourists, owing to thei 1umous condition The same may be said of the tombs of the Mamelukcs south of the Citadel, which are oyen more In need Of 16 pur at the hand» of the Wikis Commission = ¢ Many of these tombs present adm able examples of domc aichitccturc in, porhips its zrat cst pafeetion and are modcls of beauty as r¢gards both form md decoration? Lhe sculpturin, of the cxtcron 15 In some Gis 5 CAquisit Scvar ul are enriched by bunds of porcelain, Contumin. inseriptions in white Ictters upon a colourcd ground — In others discs of bluc porcel un figure among the mtcrsticcs of the viunczited mouldmg None ot the monuments, stu ited m whit has often becn r battle ground, have ramuncd mtat id time i making sid havoe with some of the most be wutitul as every travelle notes with reniet

Between the Jombs of the Cilylis and the walls of Cano stretches the extensive Mohimmiedin ccometery, which should be visited if only to see the grave of Burch- hardt, the celebrated Iiston traveller who dicd in Cano ın 1817 Laki the ill {ited Protessor Palmct, he was best known to thi Aribs under a nitive nune and m amy stories of the old travcller, known all over the 1 ist as Sheik Ibrahim, arc told by the Aı ıb gudes His tomb for many yeus was unknown to tiavcllers, but ın 1870 ıt was restored by Rogers Bev

The neat gioup of mausolca to be visited are those popularly known as the Tombs of the Mamclukes Owing to the comprehcnsive nature of this title, which would equally apply to the tombs ın the E stern Cemetery (Tombs Ojgthe Cahphs), it 18 a little mislcading Practically noth- ing remains of these tombs but the minarets, domes, and some portions of the outer walls There does not appear to have been any systematic or thorough antiquarian exam-

THE TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS. 155

ination of the ruins, — the science of Egyptology not being supposed to concern itself with monuments of later date than the Roman period, — so that hardly anything is known ot the builders. The most important of these Mos- lem mortuary chapels belong to the period of the Baharide Mameluke Sultans, making them about a centary older than those in the Kait Bey Cemetery. This may account ior their more ruinous condition. = The whole of this region,” Pacdeker informs us, “is still used as a Moslim bunal- 2round, and in some cases the aucient mansolea have been converted into family burial-placi s”

south of this :umed necropolis, which, however, at a wistance, with its lofty and elegant carved muinarots, does not prepare the spectator for the seanty ruims remaining of the mosques themselyes,—in some cases the minarets alone being erect, — are the group of mausolea containing the tombs of the Khedivial family. The tomb of the well- meaning but somewhat weak sovereign Tewfik — the near- tst approach to a constitutional ruler, perhaps, that Egypt has ever had —will probably be the most interesting to sizht-seers.

On the occasion of the funeral, a large number of buffa- loes formed part of the procession, for the widow of the Khedive had given orders that a thousand poor persons should be fed daily for forty days at the tomb-side. This was quite in accordance with Oriental customs, and in its object it bears a strong analogy to the Roman Catholic | practice of bequeathing sums of money to pay for masses for the repose of the testator’s soul.

The curious custom is well described by Mr. Pollard in his “ Land of the Monuments.” This writer had witnessed the characteristic funeral banquet a few days after the ceremony. A large space near the tomb had been covered in for the crowd of poor Cairenes who were to take part in this commemorative banquct. In the centre was a small

156 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

tent, which enclosed the royal tomb, which was covered with dark crimson cloth Sıx 1maums (Moslem priests) sat on the floor chanting, o: rather droning, a ritual m a low monotone Lhe J uropean visitors who were attracted by the stran, spectaclc, on Icaving their cards with one of the att: nd nts, were supphed with coftce and cigarettes and then conducted to a linge courtyard adjoming where about five hundred poor people were scitcd on the zround in en

cles or mosses of about a dozen = ‘There were a few police but the huge crowd of hungry ind capectint dincrs wis remathably ordcrly Soon ippoucd a procession of men bearing op then hcads lu ec trays piled up with pieces ot coarse broad cooked with rice followed by others cuiymg trays of buffalo bec? boiled A triv bang pliccd mm the ecntrc of each htth cial the sroup at once helped them

selves with all the cazuincss of those to whom met was 1 rarity, only indulzcd in on imy ortint festivitics After the meal, wit was hinded round in small brass bowls Then anothe: dctichmcent of nitives took thar pliecs after the courtyard hid been cloud were quickly formed into messes, ind the meal wis served as belore +œ It was a picturesquc, mtcrestinzg and mypicssivc scene, simzularly Ouiental, and certainly onc never to be for ott n There was 1n it a suggestion of the scene recorded in the Gospels of the fecding of the multitudes, in cxtcinil appearance, orderly and regular disposition of rows on the ground, and the manncr in which they fed themselyes with the hand, — a custom which 1s stul general im the Kast ”

CHAPTER XII

THF NATIONAL MUSEUM

Antiquity appears to have be gun Long afte: thy primevil ru was wo) Thou couldst dcveloy uf that withered tongue Might tell us what those sightless orbs hays seen, How the worl lt leclcd when it vas fresh ar] young, And the geat Deluce still had | it at green Or was it then so cld that Thstors s panes Contuned no record of aits e uly izes? {llie t & Wummy HorRACh SMICH

HE Palace of Ghisch, the old TH uemlk (Palace of the Harem) of Ismul Pacha, his bccn, since 1889, when the antiquities were 1cmoved from Boulak, the home of the National Museum of Antiquities Thc building, huge rambling structure that it 19s, with nearly one hundred rooms, 18 scarcely lige cnough to hold this vast collection. The Egyptian Goverment has long felt the urgent necés- sity of having a building specially constructed for a museum for this mvaluable collection of antiquities Not only 18 the Ghizeh Palace too small, but tht dunge: from fire 18 a very serious onc = The foundations of a new Egy ptological Museum, which 18 to be thoroughly fire-proof, have recently (1897) been laid, and the building will probably be com- pleted by the year 1900 The museum contains, not only the largest, but the most valuable collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world. It 18 also considered by scholars and Egyptologists that in pomt of arrangement and classification of the objecta col-

lected here, the museum may serve as a model to most of 157

158 THE CITY OF TUE CALIPHS

the great museums of Lurope As a preliminary to the study of Egyptology, or cycn for an intelligent understand ing of the monuments of the Upper Nilc, a course of visits here 18 almost indispensible

Since 1892 the museum has been much cnlagid, and now contains some mincty rooms, arrangcd, for the most part, according to chronologic uk order Lhis book 15 not intended as 1 guide book, so it will suffice to say that I shall not attempt to convoy the visitor thioush the collcc tion on any fixcd plin

The ongin, scope, und mistimible value of ths museum 16 80 admirably summed up by Muray, m the litest edi- tion of Ins Handbook that Jus observations ue worth quoting rerlatim et liter itim

Ths mus um cont uns with th xceytion cf bistorical papyri of which it d esot possess wy atall paalt ths m th Brutish Museum — mive m, ht dlt th eu th Iurm I gy; tological Museum — th m stimstrucuve u ivaluul I ctionof i py} tian antiquities in the world the result with y 1% f w exceztions of the indefatigable labours im? rese uch s of Matictte Lacha and his suc cessors Who have spent muny ye us in stulyi. anid excavating the old monuments and ruinscfloyzt At th xe sı nof the Khedive Ismaul, in 1363 everything comrecte 1 with oll I gyy tim history was placed unde) the chuge cf Mui tte Pichi ani all digging and ex cavating by others forbidden and iw a result the objects which formerly would have cnrich d for 1,n mus uns o1 private collections are exhibited tog: ther in the most 1 prc pirate place foi their study and examination in the caz itil of the country whose ancient history they illustrate Apart from the richness nd number of the artfeles 1t contains one great superiority enjoyed ty this museum over all others 1s, that the places whence every ol ject comes are accurately known, and, moreover, any fragment however smal) which seems to possess any historic or scientific interest has been preserved ”

Even to visit one-tenth of the rooms which compose this magnificent collection of antiquities means a whole day’s hard work , and in attempting to give the most superficial

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 159

sketch of its principal contents, one 1s overwhelmed by the appalling magmitude of the task. The mae fact that there arc not far short of one hundred rooms, loaded with the art treasures of all th dynasticy down to the Ptolemies, is alone staggaiing to the oidinary visitor, who makes no dum to Keyptological lore One 15 tempted to rerterate the rcmindcr that the “ City of the Caliphs* i not meant u a substitute for the standard guide-hooks. Aad yet, Cven the crudite Murray recognises the dificulty of » rug as a ali-mecum to this vast tre isure-house of carly Egyptian avlsiton, and devotes budy a page to what the more conscientious Baedchar dedicates nearly forty piges of his crudite, but somewhat stony, prose

[vt us, however, cast i hasty glanc¢ at rome of the more stitking features of the Muscum Wie have scarcely begun om pilgrimage, when a remar habh wooden statuctte, known s the “ Village Sheik,” commands attention This was found ina tomb ncaa Sakkarth, by Marctte It 1 one of the carhest specimens of the sculptors art in cristence, lenge attiubuted to the fourth dynasty Tt owes 1t8 popu- lu title to the fact that when it was bronght to the surface the Arabs greeted 1t with shouts of “ El-Sheak El-beled ” (the Village Shak) = In this toom ilso 15 the mummy of Aahmes I (Amidsi»), of the erghtecnth dynasty For some unknown reason — for the objects are usually arranged according to dynasties — It 15 placed here, and not with the other mummies of that pe riod

Of far‘preater artistic and antiquarian value than the “Village Sheik,” 18 the grecn diorite statue (Room 5) of Chrephren, the builder of the sec ond Pyramid. The model- lmg ıs wonderfully correct and lifelike, and the muscles would delight an anatomist. lt was discovered by Mariette, in a well in the Temple of the Sphinx. Chrephren is repre- sented seated on a throne which 1s decorated with the papy- rus and lotus intertwined, which symbolises the union of

160 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

Upper and Lower Egypt On the pedestal 1s inscribed ° “The image of thc lden Horus Chrephren, beautiful god, lord of diadems’ Dı Walls Budge, who has written the most complcte ind most intelligible popular account ot the Muscum of iny hitherto published, considers this statuc «ont of thce most remarkable pieces of Lzyptian sculpture catant In the first room on the zround floor 13 a 1¢mukable paintinz, which 13 puticulaly imtciesting as the oldest specimen in cxistence known to antiquuians It was dis coverc lin a tomb temple at Medoum — Lhe picturc, wh ch is pamted in water colows, thi pigments rctumng then colowmg m a mul able minnu, represents ecse, and the execution shows consider ble shill and knowledge of draughtsmanship = ‘Lhe picture dites from the fourth dynity, 5) thit we uc locking it the work of an artist who lived fiom five to six thousind zens rgo The Hall of Jewels (No 7) 18 of special mterest to lady visitors = bormcrly the finest collection of ancicnt Ly ptian jewelry were those of Quecn Aih Hotcp (mothe of * mes I), who flourished about 1600 BC which were. a with the mummy of thc Quecn, in 1460 it Thebes These, however are quite eclipsed in beauty by those discovered by M de Morgan (thi successor is curator of the Museum of the great Dgyptolomst Mairutte Pachı) ın the Pyra mid of Dashur, near Sikkarth, in 1894 These are, perhaps, the oldcst jewels in thc world, dating from the twelfth dynasty The gold ornaments consist of bracelets, necklaces, pectorals, etc , of the Piincess Hathor-Sat The woikmanship and design are very beautiful, and show the high pitch of artastic skill attained by the ancient Egyptian miths Among the most beautiful objects of the earlier nd is a model in gold of the sacred bark of the dead, with Amasis I seated in the stern The rowers are of sil- ver, the chariot of wood and bronze A gold head-dress

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 161

inlaid with precious stones 1s another object of exquisitely beautiful workmanship

Still making our way through the lower rooms, there 1g nothing of great attraction to the ordinary visitor till we reach Room 16, wherc 1» the famous Sphina of the Shep hard kings, cut from a block of black gianite This statue, with its fc atures so differcnt from the Egyptian type, 18, no doubt, of special intercst to the anthropologist and student # cthnolozy, but urtistically it 15 disappomting It was liscovcred by Maru tte at Tanis (Zvan of the Old Testa- ment) m 1863, and zts ongim and period arc still a bone of

mt ntion with J zy ptologists = Matictte considers 1t was

ide for one of the Hyhsos sovereisns, popularly hnown as the Shepherd hings Dı Wallis Bud , how ever, attrib- utes the statue to an carlhier period

In Room 40 13 the famous Decree of Canopus, perhaps t the historian the most imtercsting ohjeet in the whole Museum In all probability, had not the still more famous Rosctt. stone —now onc of the most viulucd treasures mn ' British Muscum — been first tound, this tablet, with

hecfold inscription, would have proved the kev to the

language and writings of the ancunt Ezvptians Like the Ros tta stone, 1t 18 msc1ibed in hierozly phics, with a popu- lur translation in dcumotic (non pictorial writing) characters, and Greek The decree was made at Canopus, by an assem- bly of pricsts, in the reign of Ptolemy IIT It ends with a rcsolution ordering a copy of this inscription to be placed in cvery large temple Yet only two of these copies have ver been discovered , one is at thio Museum (pleced next the original), and the other at the Louvre Museum

Of the recent acquisitions, the most interesting 18 the black granite stela which was discovered by Professor Petrie at Thebes, in 1896 It ıs a kind of palimpsest inscription, for there are signs of erasures of an earlier inscription by Amen-Hotep III (B c. 1500), under one by

162 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

Seti f (Mer-cn-Ptah) This stela is of the greatest im portance to Biblical students, as on the back of the stone is a long description describing wars with the Libyans and Syrians, in which occuis thc phrase, “'The people of Isracl 1s spoiled it hith no Seed” This 1s the “ first allusion to the Isr selites by nime found as ‘ct on any Egyptiin monu ment and 1s scveral centuries older than any lusion to them in Assyrian records ? (Muir +5 ‘Handbook to [gy pt’)

Perhaps the most popular features ın the whole museum are the fimous 10yal mummics of the Phuaohs These are a recent wyuisition, ind the story of the find 18 11ch in diamatic cpisodcs ind 1s not without 1ts humorous side as will be secn from the amusing narrative of Mr H D Trull, ın “ From Cano to the Soudan Fiontier, parts of which I quote below The tombs and conyctural sites were not wt th time of the discovery of the royal mummies by the Arabs, as well suudcd as now, and a large portion of the natives of the Lhcbin plan for many years supplemcntcd thar ¢ unings by the “ harvest of the tombs,” undetected by the native police It seems that a catan Arab, called Ahmed, still known at Luxor as the “tomb robber, —a sobriquet of which he 15 mordinately proud, — while diggins with his comp inions in the “ Tombs of the Kings” on the search tor intiquitics, struck upon a shaft, whıch Ahmed descended, and saw at once that he had hıt upon a vast mo: tuary chamber, which meant untold riches to the discoverer He cleverly prevented the neces- sity of sharing the booty with his fellows who had lowered him down the shaft, by calling upon them im an agitated voice to haul him up to the surface On rejoiming them, _— that he had secn a gnn (evil spimt) Ahmed

as cautious as he was resourceful, and “thinking to give additional colour to his story of the tombs’ bemg haunted by an evil spimt (which 1s supposed to manifest its

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 168

presence by an intolerable stench),” he threw, one night, a donkey down the shaft.

A few days afterwards, every one in the neighbourhood was firmly convinced that an unclean spirit lived at the hottom of the shaft, and forthwith Ahmed had the monop- oly mm the lucrative find of antiquities, which he graduaily disposed of to the foreign visitors at Luxor This, of course, aroused suspicion in the minds of Egyptologists, and im 1881 Brugsch Bey and M. de Maspero made their celebrated expedition to Thebes in spite ot the sweltering summer heat, and Ahmed, having been betrayed by his Inc ther, conducted the two savants to the spot The sen- safions of Brugsch Bey on the diseovery of this most stupendous of all archwological finds 1s thus graphically deseiibed :

“My astonishment was so overpowering that I scarcely knew whether I was awake, or whether ıt was only a mocking dream. Resting on a cothn, 1n order to recover from my intense excitement, I mechanically cast my eyes over the coffin-lid, and distinctly saw the naine of Seti I, father of Rameses II , both belonging to the nine- teenth dynasty. A few steps farther on, in a simple wooden coffin, With his hands crossed on his breast, lay Rameses II., the great Sesostris himself. The farther I advanced, the greater the wealth displayed thirty-six coffins, all belonging to kings, or queens, or princes, or princesses.”

Even the least imaginative of travellers can hardly help being impressed at beholding the actual features of the Pharaoh of the Oppression, now brought to light after a lapse of thirty centuries; and yet there is another aspect of the case. After inspecting these disinterred monarchs, there comes an uneasy feeling that as representatives of a cultured race we are guilty of the grossest vandalism, and as Christians, of something approaching to sacrilege, as well as setting a bad example to the natives in rooting up the bones of the ancient kings and making them

164 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

a kind of side-show to satisfy the curiosity of scientists, or to provide entertainment for the giping tourist Egyptolo- gists and scholas mij smile with contemptuous tolerance at this view as meie sentiment, but it 15 onc that 1s held by a considerable number of intelligent visitors to Egypt

Mr Fiar Racs vigorous piotest 1s wolth quoting “To expose the 1¢mains of a mim or Womin to public vew an the Gizeh Museum 18 2 sickening and sad spectacle Knowledge may be mereised by nifling the sepulchres of the ancicnts and gropm,z umong the ccrcments of the dead, but I question if 1 single beme is benchited hy gazing at the leathein linevments ind limbs of ancicnt pricsts ind kings” The leatimitc cunosity of FT zyptoloiists and scx ntists should be satisficd when the rcm uns hive becn photozraphed identified, und scientifically cx amined, and the remauns should then be icstned to then tomb In no countiy are the remains of mortil men treitcd with zeate: indignity than nm Tevpt Yet ı pud sus.csts itself irresistibly Imagmı the mdiznition of a Inghly cultmed Bostonian if, at some remote futurc, Mount Aubutn’s beau tiful cemctery should be treated is 2 mme in which shafts were sunk for the discovery of humin 1cmans, to be sold to foreigners 15 curios, o1 exposed in the chief muscums of the country !

What, for mstine:, can be more opposed to all canons of good taste, to say nothing of art, than the exhibition of the gruesome relics of hing Seqencn Ra (seventeenth dynasty), who was killed while fighting against onc of the Hyksos kings, some thuty-five hundred years ago The appear ance of this mutilated mummy 1s graphically and forcibly described in the following sketch by Mr Moberly Bell “ Took at him closely and read his history, told as graphic- A as if by Macaulay, and perhaps more truthfully That wound there, inflicted by a mace or hatchet, which has cleft the left cheek, broken the lower jaw, and laid bare the side

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 165

teeth, was probably the first, and must have felled him to the ground See there, how his foes fell on him! That downward hatchet-blow spht off an enormous splinter of the skull That other blow, just above the right eye, must have been a lance wound, passing through his temple, and ptobably finished him Look at tht agony ın the fac, ond the tonguc bitten through in anguish He gave bis hfe dearly, did Scqcenen Riv and after the fight the body has been embalmed and had decent though hurtkd a pulture ” Thoic 18 a touch of unconscious irony im this refercnce to

decent scpultuic,” when we ¢ naider that this al fated w uch, after enjoying undisturhed burial tor so many thousind years, has becn at length exhumed to gerve as a spectacl for mnetccnth century tourists, ind as a peg for thet flippant eynicism

lt 18 usually supposed that embilming the dead and con- vcrting them into mummks ww the ¢« ulicst and universal mode of disposing of thi dead 1mons the ancient Egyptians Reecnt 1csc uches hive, howcver, tended to discredit this popular view

Fiesh lizht has hecn thrown on the methods of bunal (f the meient Lzyptiins by a 1¢emarth bly able and sugges- tive article ın a recent number of thc ‘“ Contemporary Review” (June, 1597), by Prof Flinders Petice In this article, the well known Lgyptologist ventil ites a very re- markable but highly plausible theory, which attempts to show that a kind of modified, or what can be better described a8 cc1emonial, canmbalism obtained during the age of the pyramid-building kings (‘ circa 3500 B c ) of the Ancient Empire

While excavating among the tombs of that age at Deshas- heh, some sixty miles south of Cairo, in the winter of 1896-7, Doctor Petrie was astonished to find, after a careful exami- nation of the bodies, that a considerable number had been most carefully and elaborately “ boned” atter deat. The

166 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

bones of the skeletons had in fact been most carefully rearranged afte: 1:emoval of the flesh and tissues, and the skeleton carefully reconstructed and buried This wholesale cutting up of the bodics could not have been due to plunder, injury, or the act of enemies towards the victims of war, — the most natural explanition, — 15 ws first conclusively proved from the number of female skeletons thus tre ited the carcful mcthod ot bunal, md the distiibution of the tombs ‘The P: ofessors conclusion 1s thit this unusual mcthod of s pultuic ] ots to n ido} tion of 1 modified form of cannibalism akin to thit of the lite: Libyan invaders who overran Egypt ibout 0000 Bc Itis well known that these tribes pr ıctise 1 1 kind of canmbalism Doctor Petrie considers that m ul probibility the actual consumption of the bodies of the de rd — which, by the way was often done from the idea of honours the deil »n of benetiting the consumer, Who would thus attract t> himsclf the good jual ities of the person catcn — wis not it that timc the essential part of the ceremony but the flesh was cucfully removed, bones separatcd, and so forth, as 1t u tual cannibalism were to tike plice

This mode of sepulture was later modified by the influ- ence of a ruling 19ce, who pi ictiscd embalming and mum- mification, with all its attendant complex ceremonies This, in short, 18 an outline of Professor Pctiic’s theory

Though the Ghizch Museum 1s unquestionably, tahun as a whole, the finest Ezy ptolozical museum in the world, some of the departmcnts are poorly represented, notably the collections of historical papyri, scirabs, and Greco Roman antiquities More valuable pipym are to be found in the British Museum, the Louvre, arfd in the Museum of Egyptian Aptiquites in Turin This latter museum contains many offne antiquities collected by Napoleon’s commission of savants at the tıme of the French occupation of Egypt. The famous Prissé papyrus, in the Bibliothéque Nationale

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 167

of Paris, as the oldest ın the world, and was wntten about 2500 B €

Ihe Turin papyrus, the most valuable of any yot dis- evcicd, was the principal source fiom whith Biugsch and othe: historians drow tha Egyptian chronologies It con tuns 1 complete list of all the sovacigns, from the quisi wvthical zod hinss down t» thos ot the Hyksos dynasty (œ © 4400 t> BC 1700) Unfortun stels, the papy rns is mypaits almost undceipherabl, xo thit thi nuus of some of the hings in the usuily weepted lst ar partly con yectural

h former days, Di Willis Budze obscises the colle: tion cf saarihs was vary lize and complet == but the best have | en lisp sed of at various tim 5s nui muny private collee- tors, mt to sperk of the sret mus ums ot Furope, possess far m>c complcte and morc valuable ¢ Hcc tions

As t Ptol muc and otha: Gracco-Romin antiquities, the authorities of the Cano Museum disclaim any desire to udd to tlen collection, as tht Museum tt Alex indria, which was o} emd in 1895, was specially bunlt to prescive the col l chon ol Ul Grech and Roman anti juities discovered m Txypt, aid many of the objcts in the Ghizch galleries hive beentransferred to the Alexandiian Museum

Just as | visit to the monumcunts of Upper Exypt should be supplentnted by a visit to the matchless collection of antiquitis nshrined in the Ghisch Palace, so 1 1s essential for a 112ht understanding ind appreciation of medi al Saracenic at to visit the Muscum of Arabian Art in con- nection withthe exploration of the mosques The Museum 18 in a tempcary building in the courtyard of the Mosque El-Hakim, ad consists chiefly of objccts of artistic or antiquarian Veto collected fiom ruimed mosques or rescued frorfithe hands of the dealers in antiquities, who for years, wih the cognisance of the guardians, had been pillaging }ertain of these mosques The Museum is

168 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

mainly duto the zeal of the late Rogeis Bey, and to Franz Pacha, formerly diuector undcr the Wakfs Admunistration In 1ts tempoiary home the collection 1s 1ather cramped, and the Government his ieccntly voted a sum of £382,000 for a speciil buildmg the foundation stone of which was laid in the spiinz of the prescnt year (1897)

The most bcautiful ind cha ictcristic objects will be found in Roofs 1, 3, apd f5” In the first 100m 18 the in comparable collection of cnimcllcd mosque lamps Most of these have been tiken from the mosques especially that of Sultan Hassan Ihi dates of thes limps irc of he thirteenth, fourteenth, and fiftcnth centuwiics but their place of mafmfactuice 15 unknown Lhe cali of these lamps, which constitute thi chief „lory cf the Mueum, are in the purcst style of Arabic decoration thoush prcbably the fiftecnth century oncs uc not indizenous but imported from Murano Seirecly ı hundi i of these lanps ae extant, and most are to be found in tins unique colection In Rooms 5 and 7 18 a large and 1c; resentative cdlection of Mushrabiych (lattice woth) and mosuc woodwor? Other rooms contun specimens of mital work, faicney stucco, pottery , ete

In one cssential respcet this Museum, says M Stanley Lance-Poole, differs from others The objects here are reli- tive, and were not desixned as separ ıte works ofart They are, in fact, dependent upon the monuments to rhich they once belonged Most of thc objects consist of portions of the decoration and furniture of mosques and priate houses This, of course, makcs it the more regiettablethat, owing to thc neglected condition of the mosques, thg cannot be seen en etu, where they would be more in hirmony with thgar environment

CHAPTER XIII. THE ACROPOLIS OF CAIRO.

Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back .

Tt 15 a swelling, and the last affection

A great mind can put off lt 8 a rebel

Both to the soul and reasou, and enforce-

All laws, all conscience, tramples on Rehgiwen,

And offers violeuce to Loyalty Ben JONSON.

HE citadel which frowns over Cairo appears, at a dis- tance, to overhang the city, and, no doubt, in the age of Saladin its position was as impregnable as Gibraltar or Malta. It is, however, completely commanded by the Mokattam Hills immediately hehind it, and in 1805 Me- hemet Ali was able to rake ıt completely with his cannon posted on these heights, and took it with little difficulty. Its walls are built of the stones which formed the casing of the Great Pyramid, and this waste of precious material seems especially wanton and inexcusable, considering the proximity of the Gebel Mokattam,.which is one vast quarry of excellent building material.

The great adventurer who, with some reason, has been styled the Oriental Napoleon, is, indeed, the genius loct in this grim fortress. His ıs the one dominant figure in the later history of Egypt, and a slight sketch of his career may conveniently be given here, when describing the scene of his triumphs and his crimes.

Mehemet Ali’s life is as romantic and remarkable, and as rich in eventful episodes. as that of his great namesake the

169

170 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

founder of the Moslem faith, or as that of Saladin, or, to come to modern times, as that of Napoleon, or Bernadotte It ıs a curious coincidence that Mehemet Ali, Napoleon 1, and Wellington, cach cume into the world in the same year — 1769 Mchcmct cime of humblc puentaze, bis father being 1 fisherman, and he docs not appear to have received any education at all In fict, cven when Viccioy of Egypt, le scarcely hnuw how to wiite His lovhood was adven turous, nd when quite 2 lad he distinguished himself by leading an attach on somc yirites who hid bccn pulaging the coist, diivimz them off, ind rccoverin, the spoil Ths eaily display of promisc brou ht him to the notice of tie governor of the province, and, helped, 1t 18 paid, by the influence of the wife of this functionuy, he succeeded him in office on his death, and muid his widow When Napoleon mwaded LCoypt, Mehemet saw his oppor tunit}, and bumag given the command «f 1 troop of nrcgu lais, saled for his future lungdom He distinguished himsclf conspicuously ın this short campugn, and was promoted to the rank of coloncl After the cvacuation of Egypt by the French troops, the Mameluke beys — who had, ever since Egypt beciıme ı Tmkish px halic, regarded the Turkish viccroy as a mere ro: fa:néant, and had practically obtamed control of the counti) — attempted to set up a vice roy of thur own, and rebelled 1zainst the Turkish governor, Khosref Pacha Mehemet, foreseeing on whosc side victory was likely to 1emain, took a prominent pait in the agitation against Turkish rule, ind threw in his lot with the beys Summoned to a midmght conference by the Pacha, ostens- bly to discuss the grievances of the soldiery, Mehemet, fully realising that the moment for overt action had ariived, sent a polte acceptance of the significant invitation ‘Then, summoning his Albaman soldiery,” —I quote Warburton’s spirited description of this dramatic scene, — “gave them the Pacha’s message ‘Iam sent for by the Pacha, and you

THE ACROPOLIS OF CAIRO. 171

know what destiny awaits the advocate of your wrongs fn a midnight audience,’ he exclaimed. ‘I will go, but shall I go alone?’ Four thousand swords flashed back the Albanians’ answer, and their shout of fierce defiance gave Khosret Pacha warning to escape to the Citadel; there, it is unnecessary to say, he declined to receive hi» dangerous guest. ‘Now, then,’ said Mehemet Ah, ‘Cairo ia for sale, and the strongest sword will buy it... The Alvanians ap- lauded the pithy sentiment, and instantly proceeded tu put it into execution by electing Mehemet Ali us their leader. He opened the gates of the city to the hostile Mamelukes, ulated Khosref Pacha, took hin prisoner at Damietta, un” was acknowledged as general of the army In the beys, in gratitude for his services.”

After the defeat of Khosref, the common enemy of the Albanian and Mameluke soldiery, a great rivalry sprang up Intween the two chief Mameluke beys, Osman El-Bardesee dud Elfee, who were virtually the rulers ot the country,— the government, though nominally a tributary pachalic of the Porte, being really a military oligarchy. Mehemet, though backed by his Albanian troops, was not yet strong enough tu attack the Mameluke leaders, and contented himself with stirring up dissensions between the two parties, and ingra- tating himself with the Caircnes as well as with the army. His intrigues against El-Bardesee were crowned with suc- cess, and showed considerable powers of statesmanship and diplomacy. The Bey was both governor of the sity and commander of the Albanian troops; so Mehemet, by his agents, incited the soldiers to demand their arrears of pay, —a perennial grievance with these mercenaries, — and at the same time he encouraged the citizens of Cairo to resist the heavy contributions levied by El-Bardesee in order to satisfy the demands of his mutinous troops. The Bey, un- able to make headway against this simultaneous resistance, sought safety in flight. His rival, Elfee Bey, had already

172 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

fled. Mehemet Ah, with his Albamans, then took posses- sion of the Citadel, and while awaiting the firman for the appointment of a new pacha, assumed the reins of govern- ment hhurshced Pacha, Mehemet’s nominee, was duly invested with the viceroyalty , but he was regarded merely as a convenient figurehcad by Mehemet, who, in a short time, having hy intrigue got thc support of the Mamelukes, was himself nimcd viceroy in 1805 In the next year his powerful rivals El-Bardesee Bcy and Elfee Bey, who had still a considerable following, died, and Icft Mehemet with only one serious enemy to fear,— the Sultan, who was jcal ous of hiş powerful vassal ,

In 1811 he fnmly establıšhed hıs power by crushing the turbulent clement of the Mamcluhes, who were “ sacrificed as a hecatomb to the peace of the province” The only possible palliition for this meat blot on Mehemet Alı s career, by which he “ waded through sl ughtcr to a throne,” was that the cxtcxminition of these powertul mercenazcs was necessary for the security of ns thionc, and he had, himself, some reison to suspect treachary at them hands At all events, the massacic wis not so wantonly cruel a» that of the Janıss ucs, some ton years later, by his suzerain Mahmoud II, who was styled, with grim 10ny, Mahmoud the Reforma

The history of Egypt for the next thirty \cars 15 simply the history of Mehemet’s various campaigns of conquest Up to 1831 his victorious carcer went on unchecked = ‘In thıs year, after taking Acre and sevcral other Syrian pachahes, he felt himself strong cnough to declare war with the Porte, who had refused to recognise his Synan conquests After several succcsses over the Ottoman troops, the European Powers intervened on behalf of the Porte. Peace was made on the terms that Mehemet should evacuate Asia Minor beyond the Taurus, and be formally invested with the title of Pacha of Syma, for which he

THE ACROPOLIS OF CAIRO 173

would pay tribute Mehemet Als position was, no doubt, considerably strengthened by his new territories bemg nominally under the sway of Turkey. “His principal + curity consisted im his being ostensbly a dependent of the Porte, and he was fully aware that Vurope would t spect his territory only so long as it professedly belonged t the Sultan thit position once abandoned any person hid the sime might thit ‘ol the strongest hand’ to Egipt, that Mehemet or my othcr could Liy claim t» The perce was howescr tomp nary [he success of ne who was more his rival than 11s vassal aid not dispase “ult n Mahmoud t) look fivow idly upon Wehemet, aud 4 nipretext for attiching him afresh y as tnad, md war hok out iwun — fbinihim Pichi (M honut s cldest son), | owever, inflicted 2 crushin, defert on the Sultans army it Neb, and the flcet (which had just bccn refitted) sur ndered Iven Constantin ple its lf was menaced by the ¥ ctorious troops, ind the Sultw wis compelled to fall lack upon the good offiecs of Greit Britain and the Euro- }can Powers, who compelled Mcheimct to estore Syria to th Porte Virtually, then, a3 carly as 1841, the Ottoman tmpt was placed indar the protection of the Great Powers, and the one neat formula of Lui pean politics — the © mtegnty of the Turkish Lmpiıe — which has ever since been a cardinal postulate in th« Lastcin question, Was first enunciated The Poweis had the greatest dificulty in inducing Me- hemet, who was encouraged in his 1cfusal by Franee, to sign the convention Finally, by the diplomatic pressure hought to bear upon him by Admiral (then Commodore) Napier, backed by the strong personal influence of the envoy, the Viceroy consented to sign it Napier, with the Convention in his pocket, went fifteen times to interview Mchemet before he succeeded in obtaining his signature. In the London Foreign Office the story was current at the

174 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

time that a casual reference to the Queen of England as a “lucky woman,” by Admiral Napier, did more than any arguments or threats to induce Mehemet to give way The interpreter, who was also British vice-consul, was a Moham- medan. He was sent for by the Viceroy, when a conversa tion to this cffect took place

* You were, Effendi, in London, at the Queen’s corona tion Werc there any bad omens °?”

“None, only good omens”

“Did you see hu on that occasion ?”

“I saw her twice ”

“ Wae you nea he ¢”

“No but 1 was ncu he: at the Lord Mayo1’s dinner that she went to”

« How did she strike you ? ’

“Shi was young blooming, and mnocent — very affable, and loohtd so hippy ”

“But did you think that luck was writtcn on her fore head °”

« I did not think thcn on the mitter , but now that you ash me, I do think thit it was Allah takts nto consider- ation the prayers of thc guikcless The joung Queen’s eyes, | heard, 1an ovcr, when at he: coronation she prayed Him to jrotcct and guide her, and to govern all her doings for the honour and happiness of England.”

“ And so you conclude that she 1s lucky ’”

“ Yes”

Next morning, the same agent went with the ultematum Mehemet was quite willing to sign «“ What was the use,” he remarked, “ of withstanding the lucky Queen of a great nation ’”’

Hag not the Great Powers come to the aid of Turkey, which, deprived of its fleet and troops, was absolutely at Egypt's mercy, Mehemet could have dictated his own terms before the walls of Constantinople, and might even have

THE ACROPOLIS OF CAIRO. 175

dispossessed the hapless Sultan of his throne, and instead of founding a new dynasty in Egypt, raised up a new one over the whole Ottoman Empire, to replace that of the House of Othman.

The dreams of forcign conquest, and of bringing Syria and the Levant under the 1ule of Egypt, were effectually dispelled by the determincd attitude of the Great Powers, and for the rest of his 1019n, till his death in 1849, Me- hemet had to confine his energies to developing the natural tcsources of Egypt, fosterins native mdustiies, encourag- ing trade, establishing schools, building canals and other public works. He also did his best to introduce Western manners and customs, and to create a Civil Service based on European methods. Though Mehemet did so much for the material progress of his country, he did not succeed — aven if he could be sud to have sciously attempted such L task —in infusing a sentimcnt of nationality, or ın cre- ating anything approaching to an expression of public opinion among the Egyptians; nor, for the matter of that, have his successors succeeded 1n inspuing a spirit of patri- otism in their subjects But, after all, to alter the national characteristics of a people 1s the work of centuries. How can one expect to inspire a feeling of loyalty in a race which, from the time of Cleopatra, has never had a ruler of Egyptian birth, or to arouse a sentiment of nationality among those who have never had a national cause, and whose lives for thousands of years have been passed in one long effort to satisfy the tax-collectors? This is what inakes the plausible party cy, “ Egypt for the Egyptians,” little more than a mere sentiment almost impossible of realisation.

Such is a brief outline of the life of the greatest ruler Egypt has had since the Ptolemies. We will now proceed to explore the fortress which is so intimately sesopiated with his name.

176 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

This fortress 13 the most sti1king landmark of Cairo, and 18, perhaps, onc of thc most teresting of thé Iustonic build ings of the kzyptiancapitil Lhe name of its real founder, Saladin, 159 apt to be overshidowcd mm the minds of visitors by that of Mehemet Ah, who only partially restored it This is not to be wondered at, tor the nime of “ Fhe Napoloon of Paypt ois closely associated with the chief historical events connect d with the later history of the Citadel Ihe nomenclrturc too of the chicf objccts of ntarcst pathy accounts for this prommence given to the traditions of this reat rula Lor instance the famous Alabastr Mosque ome of the most striking in Cano, and the peat molan Inshway Icidin, strught as the crow thes from the Ivbckiyi to the Citidel, are both called atte: the scat national her» while the founder of the forti(¢ss i only commemorated by Joseph s Well, — Yusuf, the Arilne fm of Joseph, beim. Silidin’s other nimc, — and cven this famous shatt 1s popularly aseribed by towsts to the Patuiuch Joseph The Acropolis of (mo 1s, hke the hicmlin ind the Alhambri, a willed town within a eity and, besides, several mosqucs, hospitius, barracks, 4 palacc, m usenal, mint, and othe: Government buildings are, Ol were once, comprised within its precincts

In the opmion of the Cano xmndes and diagomans, the most mterestins siti within the walls 15 the one where Emin Bey mide his lustoric, 0: 1ather legendary, leap over the battlements, to cscape the slaughter of the Mameluke bcys by Mehemet Ah, in 1811

«The beys came mounted on their finest horses, in magnificent unzforms forming the most superb cavaliy in the world After a 3 flatterıng reception from the Pacha, they were requested to parade in the court of the Citadel §Thev entered the fortification unsuspectingly the portcullis fell behind the last of the proud pro- cession, a moments glance revealed to them their doom They dashed forwards —1n vain! Before, behind, around them nothing

THE ACROPOLIS OF CAIRO. 177

was visible but blank, pitiless walls and barred windows; the only opening was towards the bright blue sky; even that was soon dark- ened by their funeral pile of smoke, as volley after volley flashed from a thousand muskets behind the ramparts upon this defenceless and devoted band Startling and fearfully sudden as was their death, they met it as became their fearless character, some with arms crossed upon their mailed bosoms, and turbaned heads devoutly bowed in prayer, some with flashing swords and fierce curses, alike una\ ailing against their dastard and ruthless foe All that chival- 10us and splendid throng, save one, sank 1apidly beneath the deadly fire nto a red and writhing mass, that one was Bunn Bey He spurred his charger over a heap of his slaughtered comrades, and sprang upon the battlements It was a dizzy height, but the next moment he was in the air —anothcr, and he wa: disengaging him- “lf trom his crushed and dying horse amid a shower of bullets. He wscaped, and found safety in the sanctuary ot a mosque, and ulti- mately in the deserts of the Thebaid.”

Thus Warburton graphically describes the Bey’s remark- able escape trom this treacherous massacie. It is a pity to spoil such a thrilling and dramatic story, but there is little doubt that this remarkable feat of horsemanship is purely legendary. Emin Bey, as a matter of fact, never attended this grim levée of his Sultan. He had been warned at the last moment, and fled irto Syria. me”

The Mosque of Mehemet Ali was built, it is said, in a spirit of cynicism, on the very threshold of this scene of carnage, by the grim old Sultan. It 1s true that some chroniclers attribute a more charitable motive to the choice of a site, and suggest that it was built by Mehemet as an expiation of this ruthless massacre. The following inci- dent, however, does not give colour to this suggestion: More than thirty years after this terrible crime, a privi- leged Englishman, admitted to view the bedchamber of the aged Viceroy, was struck by the fact that the only Picture in the room was a portrait of the Mameluke who had escaped his vengeance. “The sole memento of that ancient crime,” aptly observes Mr. H. D. Traill, “ which

178 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

Mehemet Ali cared to cherish, was onc which would serve to remind him, fo: precaution’s sake, of the features of his one surviving enemy ’

This beautiful mosque 13 well worth 1 visit, though it takes a vc1y low 1ank among the Cairene mosques 1n the estimation of aichaologists It 1s quite modern, the greater portion diting from 1897, when Sud Pacha added a great porton to thc orginal mosque of Mchemct, and ıt 13 said to be a poor copy of the Mosque of Nast Osmaniya at Con stintinople "The proportions aic, however imposing, and the interior 18 very richly decorated The lofty and grace ful minarcts wc justly idmucd It 1s one of thu show mosques of Curo, despite its utistic demerits ind owcs, no doubt, 1ts populaity to its sıze, 1ts noble situation, — trom every point of Caio this striking landmuk dominatcs the city, — ind as thi bunal place ef Mehemet Al

The Mosqut of Mohammed Nasi son of the Sultan Qalaun, ıs gencrally known as the Old Mosque, ın contra distinction to that of Mchumct Ah It was formerly con sidered the 10y1l mosyuc of Curo, a position now held by Sultan Hassin Mosque, — but for many ycars 1t served as a military prison Thanks to the exertions of the Ancient Monuments Picservation Committec, it has been restored, and can now be secn by visitus The arcrded qwbla 1s beautifully ornamcnted with 11ch irabesques Of the other mosques in the Citadcl, the only one worthy of imspection 18 the Mosque of Sulieman Pacha, who 1s better known as Sultan Selim, the Ottuman conqueror of Egypt (1517) Tt 18 an exact replica in miniature of St Sophia at Constan- tinople, and 18 one of the best e,amples of the Turkish type of mosque in Cairo

J@pph’s Well is a huge square shaft of vast proportions

1 For some reasons the title of Sulieman Pacha was that chosen by the French renegade officer Colonel Séve to whom the late Khedive Ismail intrusted the organisation of his army

THE ACROPOLIS OF CAIRO. 179

and great depth, cut through the solid rock. It need hardly be observed that, though of respectable antiquity, it has nothing to do with the Hebrew patriarch. It is named after Saladin, who either excavated it, or opened up an existing well hewn in the rock by the ancient Egyptians. This latter theory is now generally accepted by Egyptolo- gists, and certainly the vast proportions of this wel] are in favour of its having been built in an age which produced the most stupendous architectural monuments m existence. The depth to the level of the water 1s ncarly three hundred fect. It is quite worth exploration. The descent is by means of a kind of spiral roadway, formed of a gently ichned plane, so broad that a carriage might almost be driven down to the first platform. It is said that the hottom of the well is on the same level as the Nile. The water is now only used by the natives, as, since 1866, the Citadel has been supplied with water by the Cairo Water Company.

The view of Cairo, especially at sunset, from the south- ern ramparts is very fine, and is justly included among the world’s most famous points of view. In natural beauty and varied interests, the prospect deserves to rank with the view from Europa Point at Gibraltar, or from the Alham- bra over the golden plain of the Vega, or with the noble panorama of sea and land from the Hermitage at Capri, or from the Greek Theatre at Taormina, to name a few of the fairest. prospects in the whole range of European scenery. Yet, grand though the view is from the Citadel, that from the summit of the Mokattam, which towers over Saladin’s stronghold, is still more magnificent, being far more com- manding and comprehensive. Here, not only Cairo, but the Egyptian Delta, lies below the spectator.

Very graphically and suggestively does Mr. Moberly Bell describe the innumerable historical associations this unique view summons up:

180 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

« The forty, or let us say seventy, centuries look across to us from the Pyramids, the Sphinx from even a 1emoter period, stands still waiting the answer toits never solved riddle, and down from long ages with huge lacune indeed we trace the history of the world, marked by the ruined tovt-prints of Time There is Memphis, earliest of cities there ue thc colossal tombs of the ancient «empire, stretching from Sikkatrah to Ghizch To the right hes Hehopolis, with its Sun temple of the Middle Monarchy and the Nile hurrying by to Janis of the Hyksos to Sus and Bubistis of the New Finpire to Naukritis of the Giccks and to Alex umdiis of the Ptclemies J here 18 Babylon of the Romans away to the left —th lLostat of the Arabs, LI zhu ot the Ab) widcs 11 WKiutweh of the Tooloonides and Cairo itself of the 1 atimites At our fect hs the Citadel of the Great Salahad D en — Saladin of our childhe od — the founder of the Ayyoubites Th minucts of Kaliun and Iissan kout Bey and El (shun, recall the Mameluke dynasties wmd thoe by the Mosque hk) Mowayud w the Bib FF] Zuweilth where the Lurkish Sultan Selim hanged lomim list cf his rue wsumed the title of Khaliph, and secured Fyypt t> th hate Liule of the Imk

This wealth of lustorieal tradition, which scives to make the prospect a kind of mnemonic objcct-lesson in Egy ptian history, 15 apt to dist: ct ones attention from the æsthetic features of this glorious view

While far is sight cin reich beneath as clear And blue a he wen as ever blest this sphere, (,ardens ind minuets and glitterm,, domes, And high built temples fit to be the homes Of mizhty gods mnd pvı ımıds whose hour Outlasts all time, above the waters tower Moore.

CHAPTER XIV. OLD CAIRO AND 1HF COPTIC CHURCHES.

HE principal facts in the early history of Uld Cairo

are famihar to every tourist, and there 1s scarcely a

sude book, or book of Egy ptian travel, which omits to men- tion that Old Cairo, now tenced off from the modcurn capi- val vy an extensive barnier of huge mounds of rubbish, was trrmeily called Fostat, in allusion to the tent (fostat) of the victorious Amiu, who pitched his headquarters here wh n he invaded Egypt im 639a D The Mohammedans, however, had only followed thc example of the Romans, Who, a few hundied years before, had utilised this com- manding position as a military post. This garrison town, m turn, occupied the site of a city founded by Babylonian colonists, under Camby ses, in 525 B C Perhaps, as in the case with most of the buried cities of Egypt, Old Cairo can tiace its history bach to a Pharaonic period ; but this 18 not thoroughly established, and in the Peisian period we may ‘onsider we have got to the bed-10ch as regards Old Cairo’s history Diodorus ıs responsible for the statement that it was founded by Assyrian captives in the tıme of Rameses Il. Modern scientific historians are not often disposed to treat seriously this historian’s statements as regards the carly history of Egypt, as myth, legend, and unsupported tradition are inextricably commingled with historical facts. This assertion, however, is of induect value as an argument in favour of the extreme antiquity of Old Cairo, as it clearly shows that in his time it was generally believed that Baby-

lon of Egypt was of very ancient foundation. Some writers, 181

182 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

indeed, have attempted to identify this city with Karkar, under which title there 1s a reference to it, according to these authorities, in a stela of Thotmes IV (1700 Bc) The site was of zrcat strategic and political impor tance, as 1t commanded both thc Nile and the Delta, and ıt was also on the direct route between the two most important cites of Lower Egypt |§ Memphis and Hchopalis

Some historians, tempted by the «tymological coinci dence, havc brought forward an ingenious argument in favour ot a clos connection between this Lgyptian Baby lon and Hehopolis ind suzzest thit Babylon 1s a cori uption of Bab h-On, that 1s, Gate of On (IIchopolis) =.

These prefatory remarks will perhaps hclp the non his to.ical visitor to understind thit Old C ur> 1» not, as might be supposed fiom the name a mac suburb or native quar ter of Caro, but a distinct city separated from Modcrn Cairo by half :uincd sticets nd mounds of rubbish It 18 fully two miles beyond the wills and thouzh the chief sights ae more int isting to those fond of historical and antiquarian studics, tw œo: three days should be devoted to its exploration In fact, if the visitor wishes some thing more than a cursory inspection of the ancient Coptic churches, a whole weeh should be devoted to these Greek and Coptic churches and monasteries which cluster round the ruins of the Roman Babylon, the Mosque of Amru, and the ruins of Old Babylon The usual way of visiting Old Cairo 1s on donkey-back, but 2 quicker and less tiring method 1s to take the train to Madagh ‘Station, which 18 within a few minutes’ walk of the old Roman Fortress

The interest of the Amru Mosque 18 rather historical than architectural In a certain sense 1t may be called the oldegs, mosque in Egypt, but there are few traces of the original mosque In fact, as we see it, 1t 18 one of the most recent in Cairo, dating from the fourteenth century In the rebuilding, however, the orginal form—a copy of

OLD CAIRO AND THE COPTIC CHURCHES. 188

the Kaaba of Mecca— was preserved, and some of the old materials were incorporated in the walls. This mosque is still held ia the greatest veneration by the Mohammedans t Caro, who call it the “Crown of Mosques.” Just as the Mousque of Sultan Hassan ranks as the great Mosque (f the State or Royal Mosque, this ancient foundation of imru 1s regarded by Cairenes as peculiarly the mother- church of Cairo; and a prophecy, impheitly beheved by devout Moslems, predicts the downfall of Moslem power waenever this mosque shall fall to decay It is here that the universal service of supplication, when a ta. dy or insuf- liaent rising of the Nile thieatens the prosperity of Egypt, tites place,—a service attended hy the Khedive, the m neipal officers of state, and the ulemas, and officials of allthe Cairo mosques.

The gloomy interior, with its forest of pillars (many bung spoils from the temples of Memphis and Heliopolis) 1gembles the El-Azhar Mosque. The late Khedive con- timplated the complete restoration of this mosque, but little has been done.

A curious architectural feature is the pointed arch, which, apcording to some authorities, is the earliest prototype of the Norman arch known. Fergusson, however, is of opin- in that these pointed arches are of later date than the wound ones adjoining them.

The much disputed question of the origin of the pointed arch mainly concerns architectural experts, and most vis- itors will consider the “Pillar of the Whip,” concerning which various legends are told by the guides, as the most interesting object. As a preliminary to the story, the guide will point out certain veins in the marble which are said to be the marks of the Caliph’s kourbash whip. The legend runs that when Amru built the mosque, he wished to place some kind of relic from the Mecca mosque within the new sanctuary, and therefore requested his master, the Caliph

184 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Omar, to send him one of the columns from the Kaaba The Caliph complied, and bade a ccrtain column transport itself to Egypt The 1cquest being unheeded, the enraged Caliph struck the offending column with his kourbash, whereupon the column obeycd = This story being 1eceivec with a sufhei nt show of cicdulity, the guide will probabl procecd to poipt out some Curious formations in the voir ing of the maibli, whıch he declares are the names d Mohamincd and the Sultan Sulman Ag few visitors can rcad Arabic, this assertion 1s not hkhcly to be disputcl

Next to the mnaculous column, the chict objects of inte est in the cstimition of the vudis uc a pan of columns between which a min cin brucly squecze These ve known as the “Necdle 3 Lyc and the tradition 1s tht this feat can only be porforincd by men of the Inghet integuity, the Arihs ippucentl) uttiubutms peculiar virtie to tunuity of build = These columns hic, however, bem recently walled up by the Khedive Ismul In fact, — according to the story told by Lush rcsidcnts, — tle space was willed up by Ismuls orders, becuse he saw at a glince that Ins portly form could not stind the test! Conscquently, he did not think it fittin, that the salvation promised to his subjects should be denied to then soy creign

Clustercd within and around the ruined walls of the olè Roman Castle me many Coptic churches and convents With the crception of Abou Sergch, generally called St Mary’s Church, they arc littl known to visitors, or, for the matte: of that, to the European residents, yet their high architectural importance and the beautiful workman- ship of the mternal decor ition mvite careful mspection The | ees neglect of these carly Christian churches on the part of taavellers ıs probably partly due to the ignorance of the dragomans and guides, whose knowledge of the ecclesiastical buildings of Old Cairo is, as a rule,

OLD CAIRO AND THE COPTIC CHURCHES. 185

confined to the Mosque of Amru, the Church of St Mary, and the Greek convent It 18, therefore, the best plan to dispense with the ordinary Cairo gmide and engage one on the spot There are nearly a dozen Coptic churches in Old € mo, but except to those who tahi a special intercst n eccelcsiastical architecture and art, a visit to those men toned above, and the churches ot Abou Sephin and El Adri, both situitcd within the walls of the old Roman itadel wall probably suffice Phe onc modern authority on the Coptu churches 1s Mr A J Butler, whose monograph * The Ancient Coptic (Churches of Egypt,’ rinks as a clase and should cer- tanly be consulted by cxvery person who wishes to obtain full and accurate information about these unique sanctu- alics The exterior of a Coptic church 1s characterised by a muked simplicity and abscuce of decoration, and with the windows looking lke loop holes, 1t has more resemblance to 1 tort, and the Byzantine basilica influcnce is clearly fiaccable «The internal uranzemcnts approximate more nearly to those of a Giech church thin to a Roman Catholic or Protestant temple The body of the church 18 divided intv thice comp utmcnts scp u itcd by wooden screens The hist 1s a kind of vestibule tne sccond compaitment 1s set .4part for women, and thc third, next the chou, 1s reserved in mn East of the chancel or chorr 1s the hekel, or sanctuary, and behind this again the apse, with the epis- copal Warone The mtual im somc respects rcsembles that of the Greek church Thceic 1s no organ, the only instru- ments beiig cymbals, and brass bells struck with a rod held ın the hand “The voices of the clergy, as they ‘praise God with the loud cymbals’ have a singularly wild and impressive effect There are no images, but a great number of paintings 1n the stiff Byzantine style, but some of them are not wanting in a kind of rude grandeur. The

186 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

principal painting 1s always that of our Lord in the act of benediction.”

The Copts are supposed to be the direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians, and there 1s a less admixture wth aliuns conquering races than is the case with othe: inhabitants of the Nic Valley The culy Lgypthan, or Coptic, church dates probibly a couple of centuiies before the famous edict of Theodosius, 4 D 379, — that 1cligious coup d'état which offigally established Christianity as the state 1chgion of Deypt The culicst Christians wore probably monks

“To Daypt,” obscaves Ma Lanc-Poolc, * belongs the de- batable honow: of having invcentcd monisticism ” Though the early Esyptiun chwch 1s to all mtcnts and purposes the Coptic church, the historical ongin of the church dates fiom 451 4 bp, when, adopting the heresies of Cuty- chus, 1t seceded from the mothcr-chuith of Rome, and from that time its believers rink as a distinct sect Thar ritual, howcver, resembles im many icspects that of the Gieek church

Then churches and convents ue scattered throughout all Egypt, from the Meditcitancan shore to the Thcban plan The most important scttlement 15, however, ın Curo, where there are two large Coptic colonics, — one in the neighbourhood of the uninteresting, miscalled Coptic cathedral, north of the Evbekiya, which is scldom visited by tourists ; and the other, scattered among the ruins of the old Roman Castle ot Babylon

«When we enter the stronghold the strange character of the for- tress grows upon us Passıng through narrow lanes, narrower and darker and dustier even than the back alleys of Cairo, we are struck by the deadly stillness of the place The grited windows are small and few, and but for an occasional heavy door half-open, and here athere the sound of a voice ın the recesses of the houses, we might question whether the fortress was inhabited at all Nothing, cer- tainly, indicates that these plain walls contain six sumptuous churches, with their dependent chapels, each of which 1s full of carvings,

OLD CAIRO AND THE COPTIC CHURCHES. 187

pictu 98, ve tments, and furniture, which in their way cannot be matched. A Coptic church is like a Mohammedan harem: it must not be visible from the outside. Haigh walls hide everything from view. The Copts are shy of visitors, and the plain ¢ateriors are a suthcient proof of their desire to escape that notice waich ip by gon diys aroused Mohammedan cupidity and fanaticism and 1ow too otten exeites the no less dangerous envy ot the moneyed ui veller

~ Of the sıx churches within the fortress ot Baby: „three are ot the highest interest; ior though the Gaeek Chureh of ~t Georpe perched on the top of the round Roman tower, 13 f wiv decorated with Damascus and Rhodean tiles and suver lainps, the tower itself, with its central well aud gieat staireass and euious ) wlating cham- ters, 15 more interesting than the chuich above it Of the three principe Coptic churches, thit of St Sergius or Abu Sarga, 18 the most often visited, on account of the tradition that ic was in its apt that the Holy Famnly rested when they Joumncyed to the land otl Egypt”?

As if to give some colour to this tradition, the Copts i\lnbit a manger in which the Infant Christ was said to have been laid. Apart from this exceedingly doubtful tes- timony of the supposed manger, it is possible that this crypt does mark the alleged site. It is certainly many centuries older than the church. The screen here is particularly fine; and among other valuable specimens of wood-carving is a beautifully executed representation of the Nativity in high-relief.

The most striking, however, of all the Babylonian

churches is that known as the Mn’allaka, or Hanging’

Church. It is so called because it is built in between two bastions of the Roman wall, so that it has the appearance of being suspended in mid-air. Apart from this factitious attraction, which naturally makes it the most popular with guides and tourists of all the churches contained in the castle precincts, the church is noteworthy in many respects. It is the oldest of the Coptic churches in Old Cairo, part of it dating probably from the third century. Then there are

18 Lane-Poole.

_

188 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

no domes and no chon In fact, this church approaches more nearly to the strict bisilu an pattern than any other church in this quitter. Thcre 1s 2 curious hanging gardcn attached to the church, where the bold experiment of plant- ing palms in mid ur has suceeded in perpcturting the tradition that 1t was here that the Vuein fist broke he: fast with a meal of dates on her arrival m Lzypt The cleft to be found in date stones 15, according to this Coptic legend, the muk mide by the Virgins tecth This tact should intcrest studcnts of sicicd folk lor

A visit to Rod. Islind and the 1umous \Nilomctc1, bem. generally combined with the cxcuision to Old Cuiro, a short description of this be wtiful islind may be conven icntly ancluded in this chapta "The islind 1s 2 pictty and shady 1cticat covarcd with Groves md wardens An Ar ibic tradition his chosen 9 ecitun pat of the shore opposite the Hospital of Qasr cl Aim, a5 the site of the finding of Moses by Phauaohs diughtar Lhe spot 1s marked by a tall palm with an unusually smooth trunk, which 18, of course, Called Moses s Hice

The Nilometer (thc column used to mark the rise of the Nilc) 15 the chief object of interest in the island, 1t 15 situ ated at the southern cnd, cxvactly opposite the site of the old Rom in fortress of Babylon, ind consists of an octagon column of 1cd 21 unte, ibout thnty fcet high = This pillar has been frequently repared, and probibly very little re- mains of the original Nilomcter, built by the Caliph Sulie- man in 715 a pn It 18s erected at the bo tom of a well-like chambcui or cistern, crowned by a modern domed roof, which has, of course, direct communication with the Nile Owing to the elev ition of the 11ıve1 bed, the tra- “— haght of sixteen cubits (about twenty-eight feet) on tne column, when the cutting of the banks of the rr- gation canals is permitted, does not actually mean a rise of the Nile to this extent At Cairo, a rise of twenty-six feet

OLD CAIRO AND THE COPTIC CHURCHES 189

is thought to be a good average This traditional number of cubits 1s symbolised in the famous Vatican statue of Father Nilc, who 18 surrounded by sixtcen genu, who are intended to 1¢prcsent those cubits

In former times, the taxation of the fellah was uranged cna Sliding sealc, dependent on the nse of the Mle It ned scarcely be said, when we membi th fiscal methods of the Lzyptiin Government, even us recently is the time of the Ahedive Ismail, that this custom gave tise to much dishoncsty on the put ot the officials who had the custody of the Nilomctor, who invanably pro dund the nse to bhe geatu than it actuals was

The nse of the Nil, and the consequent ceremony of cutting the dam of the Abus Canal, 1s cclebrated by an important festival It 1s not . poetical metaphor, but an utual fact, that the Nile 1s the one bencficcnt Providence ct Laypt, and thercfore it 1s not surprising that, as a period of universal acjoicing and holiday making, the Khalg tête outshincs many of the gicat icligious testivals

A graphic dusciiption of this fétc 15 given im Muriay’s H indbook

Ihe ceremony 13 performed in the morumg by the Governor of ( uro or his deputy The whole mght before this the booths on the shore and the boits on the 11ve1 ure crowded with people, who njoy themselves by witnessing o1 joming the numerous festive gr uss The Governor of C uro and othe: mgh ofheials have mar- quecs pitched along the noith bink of the Khahg and sk their fnends to witness the ceremony Towards morning the greater put of the Cairenes either i¢lire to some house to rest, or wrap themsclves up im a cloak and sleep on boatd the boats, or upon the banks in the open air About eight o cloch a m the Governor, companied by troops and his attendants, arrives and on giving & signal, several peasants cut the dam with hoes and the water rushes into the bed of the canal In the middle of the dam 1s a pillar of earth, called Aru-seten-Nil, «The Bride of the Nile’ which a tra- dition pretends to have been substituted by the humanity of Amru for the virgin previously sacrificed every year by the Christians to

190 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

the nver god While the water 1s rushing into the canal, the Gov ernor throws some silver to the men who hive been employed ım cutting the dam who swim kout with great shill ın the rushing water It occasionally hajyens that some swimmer less able to withstand the strength of the current 19 carried away and drowned As soon as sufficient w iter has entered 1t boats full of people asce! d the canal mi th crow is g1 1d tally disperse as the Governor aid the trcc} 8s with h w fi m the busy seei

The ceicmony 18 raicly witncssed by tourists, as 1t usu ually takcs place in the besinning of August If the im provements promiscd by the Fyyptian Government vit carticd out, one of the most picturcsque ind characteristic of Cairene festivals will probably be abolished altogcther, or degenerate into a% me iuin_icss cc1cmony, 15 by the drainaze ot the Khalig its rues n letre will be bolishcd As muntioncd in a previous chiptu, the intention 1s to convert this incicnt waterwiy mm the carly summer wu tually an o}«n sewer — into in electric tr umwWay

Just beyond the Kh ilig is the rtuncd iqueduct, which 1s a very picturesque feituie and though the guide books are inclined to 1gnore it, 1t 18 quite woith a visit The local guides ascribe ıt to Saladin but ıt was actually built by the Sultan (rhu:1 It was intcndcd to supply the Citadel with water from the Nile, and thouzsh now in a 1uinous condition, traces of thc grand woikmanship-of the Mame luke builders can still be recozniscd The length 1s about two and a quarter miles, and the water was conducted by seven stages, being raised from one level to the other by means of sakyehs The southern end terminates in a mas sive square tower over two hundred feet high The sum- mit can be conveniently reached by a gently inclined pathway, similar to the one at Joseph’s Well in the Cita- del The view from the top 1s very stiiking Those who intend visiting the Coptic churches will find it a convenient way of making acquaintance with the puzzling topography of this Coptic quarter.

CHAPTER XV. SOME SIDE-SHOWS OF CAIRO.

HERE are certain well-known sights in Cairo, which are more popular in character than most of the antiquities and curiosities deseribed m= earlur chapters. “uch are the performances of the Howling Dervishes, those of the Twirling Dervishes, the dances of the Ghawazee 2uls at the Arab cafés, the snake-charmers, stieet-conjur- ers, ete. These side-shows of Cairo, as they might well be called, constitute what Ruskin or Grant Allen would prob- ably term “ Vulgar Cairo.” Though no doubt they appeal more to the taste of theeoidinary sight-seer than to that of the intelligent tourist, yet such an intolerant attitude would be deprecated by the student of men and manners, who 1s capable of looking beneath the surface, and appre- cating the substratum of Oriental life and atmosphere vhıch underlies these somewhat vulgarised attractions of the casual tourist.

Cairo abounds in Egyptian cafés, where dances by the sot- disant members of the Ghawazee tribe are the sole attrac- tions. They are, however, altogether lacking in local colour, and are, in fact, run by enterprising Greeks and Levantines for European visitors, and the performance is as banal and vulgar as at any café chantant in Antwerp or Amsterdam. The whole show consists of a few wailing musicians sitting on a raised platform at one end of the café, accompanying the endless gyrations of a stout young woman of unprepossess- ing features, who postures in particularly ungraceful and unedifying attitudes. Then her place is taken by another,

191

192 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

equally ill-favoured and obcsc, who goes through the same interminable gyrations, to be relieved in her turn, and this goes on hour after how This strange “ unvaticty show’ 18, neveithelcss, one of the established sights of Caio and 1s frequented in preat numbas by touristo Genuine per formanccs of thesi danang „uls ue seldom seen in Cano e\cept occasionally at weddings mong the nech Carre nce» wmd, in fut the public dinees of the Ghaw azes arc forbid din by the wthorntus They can, howcver, be seen at most of the towns of the Uppar Nile V ulcy, especially at Kinch and I snch

Theic 3s i stiong family likeness between all these Ouen tal dances The Gchawaece dince has miny points of simi lanty with the Spimsh sypsy dinccs one of the stock hts of Seville and the AThimbra, which 1s sud to have been introduced mto Spun by the Phaniains These exlnbitions of muscular contoition ue prictic dly the same as the repulsive danse lu ı ntie fumha to all Algerian tourists ‘The Indiin nintch dimce equally sensuous but more griceful 13 also Closely iclitcd to these terpsichore an pertorminccs In short, all these sensuous and musculat as distinct from locomotive, dauccs have doubtless a com mon origin

These repulsive and stupid exlubitions would not prob ably be so much patroniscd by foreigners, were it not for the singular deaith of ordinary urban amusements and public recreations in Cairo Probably no tourist centre of equal importance affords so few opportunities to visitors of amusing themselves ritionally in the evening, when ordinar) sight-seeing 18 impracticable An opera two or three times a week during the season, and onc or two café concerts, Syn up the resources of the city in the shape of evening entertainments

This lack of evening recreation 1s the more noticeable from the fact that Cairo 1s popularly supposed to be one of

SOME SIDE-SHOWS OF CAIRO. 198

the gayest and liveliest winte: resorts in the world, In the limited society sense this reputation is well deserved, though the passing tourist will not probably be enabled to test its accuracy. The Cairo season ıs like that of Cannes or Nice,—one endless round of entertainments of all kinda But these social gaieties are for the most part confined to the Luropean wintcr-1csidcnts and the little world of Cairo offcialdom In the case of guests at the hig hotels, there 14, however, a certain amount of sucial inte:cowisc among the residents and tourists, and the balls which are fre- quently givcn by the fishionabl hotels, such as Shep- hards, Continental, and the Ghezireh Palace, serve a us ful purpose in bringing about this amalgamation

The al fresco exhibitions of the snake chazmers, conjurers, story-tellers, etc , are a charactelistic feature of Carro street- scenes, but the most amusing of all these out-door enter- tunments are the performanccs of hara Guz, the Egyptian Punch This Arabic form of the friend of our childhood Is perhaps the prototype of the English Puneh-and-Judy show The only cssential difference between the Enghsh ind Egyptian versions secms to be that the Egyptian Punch 13 polygamous and it 13 one of his numerous wives, and not the baby, who 1s thrown out of the window A \cmesis, however, awaits the murderer, as ın the case of the English Punch, and his soul 1s conveyed to Hades by an Kgyptian devil of appalling ugliness

With strangers, however, the most popular of all the sights of Cairo are the performances of the two sects of deivishes, known as the Howling and the Twirling Der- ‘ishes They take place every Friday afternoon in their respective tekzyehs, as the convents of this fanatical sect are termed These quasi-religious services, te¢hnically known as Zikrs, though repulsive and brutalising enough to satisfy the most morbid tastes, are, however, tame and perfunctory compared with the performances which take

194 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

place at the great religious festivals at the Mosques of the Hasaneen and: Mehemet Ali.

The ordinary weekly Zekrs of the Twirling Dervishegs cannot always be reckoned upon by the sight-scer, as they are often suspended. The Howling fraternity, however, perform with great regularity every Friday afternoon, between two and three, in the Tekiyeh-Kasr-el-Ain ; and to enable their guests to witness the spectacle in comfort, the proprictors of the principal hotels advance the hour of the table d'hôte lunch on that day.

The dervishes stand in a circle, with their eyes fixed upon their sheik, who remains in the centre of the ring of wor- shippers, and directs the exercises and controls the pace of the movements with gestures, as a musical conductor directs a band or orchestra with his baton.

The beginning is comparatively sober and restrained, the dervishes slowly bending their heads to and fro, and per- petually ejaculating invocations to Allah with staccato grunts or groans. Soon the swaying becomes more violent, and the body is bent backwards and forwards till the fore- head and the back of the head almost touch the ground alternately. The groaning and howling increases in force and volume, and is unpleasantly suggestive of the roar of wild beasts. By this time most of the fanatics have flung aside their turbans, and thcir long black manes sweep backwards and fowards like a punkah curtain, with the reg- ularity of a pendulum. Some of the more excitable wor- shippers are at this point foaming at the mouth and yelling hu! hu! in an ecstasy of religious frenzy only partially simulated. Occasionally a dervish will fall on the floor in a paroxysm of ecstatic emotion which has all the appear- ance of an epileptic fit. In fact, there is a certain element of @nuine fanaticism in the performance when at its height that might prove dangerous to the spectators. Ladies are not advised to remain to the end; or if the spectacle proves too

SOME SIDE -SHOWS OF CAIRO 195

engrossing, they should be especially careful not to sit too close to the der vishes, or to brush up against the performers Ihe dcryishes maintain that the touch of a woman 1s con- taminition, and the half-maddened fanatics might possibly resent this contact ın a very unpleasant fashion Male vis itors too, will be well advised to avo.d letting it be secn that they are affected by the ludicrous aspect ot some phases of this performance

T a spectator of an imprissionable temperument there is somcthing hornbly tascin iting m this pafo imanee He my be told, and be quite prepared to belive at the time, thit the groammg and howling of these { matics s as much Lm recnary show, in which the Christian dogs of tournsts md other unbchivers, instcad of the Egyptians, can be onveniently “ spoilt,” as a religious exerase But there 18 n doubt that the frenzy of the dervishes 15 not wholly sim- ited, for towards the end of the service the howling, groiming, and swaying worshippers secm in a manner hyp- notised by the wild struns of the c1cruciating music

Besides being a less obnoxious spectacle, regarded from \ sccular pomt of view, the Twirling Dervishes’ perform- mce ıs a far more icmathable one, regarded as a “ymnastic fcat, than that oi then confreres, the Howling Davshes After all, it does not 1¢quire to be a Moham- medan counterpart of the Salvationists to gioan, gasp, and sway the body by the hour together Any of the European spectators could perform the feat, if necessary. The Twirling Dervish may be half impostor, half fanatic ; but at all ey ents, like the sword swallower or slack-wire dancer, he 18 domg something which none of the European Spectators could do. To revolve at the rate of from sixty to one hundred times a mmmute for nearly half an hour 18 an accomplishment to which the feats of the record wield- crs of the Indian clubs alone can offer a parallel. Then, too, one must allow a certain amount of religious fervour

196 JHE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

and exaltation, which seems wanting to the ceremonies of the “ Howlers.” The Twiling Dervish has all the air of a genuine mystic

“Tt 1s impossible to contemplate the countenance of the twirhng fanatic, and the contrast of its strange quwetude with the ceaseless motion of his body without bemg powerfully umpressed by 1t As the endless gyrations continue thi position of the arms 1s repeatedly yare 1 Now both uc extended rt full knpth now one 1s dropped by th side while the other remaums still stretched out now onc now both ue bent till the tips of the fingers touch the shoulders But all the time the cyes remun closed and the fice wears the bame Expression of perteet wud imperturbikle culm To guze wm tenth, upon him is to f cl his condition griduilly communicating iself to your own brun Phot spinning, fizure with the unmoved countenince be gins to excraise av disturbing effect upon you

The world ot a ht must hue long disipy cared fiom his view the whizzing universe would be 1 mar blur upon Ins retina were he to open his eyes But does he 6 ¢ nothing beyond it through their cloud lids? [lis he really twulded haimself im imagination to th Gates of Puadise ? Perhaps the imecssint rotary movement acts on the humin biun lhe hashish) [his dervish at any rate his all the ur ot the wonder seer He is of the true race of the Vision aris and «ven if he were not the stuj or of trance 15 at wy rate a less unwholesome id distressing subject of contemplation than the spasms of epilepsy = The performance of the Pwialing Dervishes leaves no sense of a dear ided huminity behind ıt but you quit the company of their grunting und gasping brothers with ill the feeling of having assisted it a cimp-mecting’ of the lower ipes ?

The best Zikrs aie to be seen at the chief mosques on the mght of the Middle of Shaban This great festival takes place during the most solemn might in the whole Mohammedan year, when, according to immemorial cus- tom, the Khedive pays his devotions in the Mosque of Mehemet Alı. The belief 1s, that, on this mght of Sidr,

lotus-tree, which bears as many leaves as there are human beings, is shaken by an angel in Paradise, and on each leaf that falls 1s inscribed the name of some person

1H D Traill

SOME SIDE-SHOWS OF CAIRO 197

who will infallibly die betore the end of the year Natur- ally, a stiong personal ımterest 1s behind the prayers and mtcreessions made to Allah and Mohammed on this mght, and 1t 15 not surprising that all the mosques are thronged.

With the Egyptians themselves the numerous religious testi als are regarded more as excuses for holidas-making thin as occasions for religious exercises So the inclusion f these fete diys among the Caio side-shows may be par- doned

Phe pubhe festivals (Molids) offcr even 2 better field for the study of Caicne native hte than cuntimuous visits to the bazaars The iclimous siznificanc: of these feasts 4, 16 a tale, quite rgnoied by the pleasure-losing Catrencs, md they are more like fais on a large scale than religious testis als

Most of these fêtes take place out of the European “ason, hut the Molid (buthday annivcrsary) of the Hisancen, which 18 celehiated ın the winter, should not be omitted from the tourist’s programme

Nothing more pictur syne and furvlik ci be imagined than th sc nesan the streets and bazars ot ( uro on the great night of the Hasineen The currus thmg was that in the winter after l HARK bir when I stocd—f r riding ww impossible—in the

dst of the dense throng in the Mooskhi in] strugcled into the ly street that leads to the Wosjue of the Hisis en there was not ‘sign of ill humour or faniticism 1n spite of th presence of many Fur>peans It might hive lecn expected thit it least some slight demonstration would have been made against the Furopcans who windered about the gaily wWumiated streets but Enghsh ladies walked through the bazaars English officers ind tourists mingled in the throng and even reached the doors of the sacred mosque itself without the slightest mol station or even remark ‘The scene, as I turned into one of the narrow lanes of the great khin which fronts the mosque was like a picture ın the Arabian Nights The long bazaar was lhghted by innumerable chandeliers and coloured lamps and candles, and covered by awnings of rdh shawls and stuffs The shops had quite changed their character,

198 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

and each was turned into a tastefully furnished reception-room Seated in the 11chly hung recess you can see the throng pushing by —the whole population it seems of Cairo ın their best array and merriest temjer All at once the sound of drums and pipes 18 heud and a bund of dervishes chanting benedictions on the Prophet and Hoseyn pass through the dchghted crowd On your lett 1s a shop—nw a throne room in miniature —where 1 story teller 18 holding an vulne spelltound as he relites with dramatic gestures some tivourite tile Hard by a holy ma ys revolving his head solernnly and unceasingly as he repeats th name of God or some potent text trom the Korin In nother plue a party of dervishes are performing a Zikr = The whole scene 1s certainly un real and fanyhhe ?

It seems, perhaps, strange to include what to Westen minds 18 a purely private and domestic function m this chapter , but 1 nitive wedding sccms to be considered, at all events by lady travellcrs, onc of the recognised sights of Caro Strangers who wish to be present it one of thes characteristic entertunments will have little difficulty in effecting this In fact it 18 eymcally sud by residents that no self-respecting drizomin would allow his potron to be balked of his disne by the fact that no Caiucne wedding was at that timc to take place Hc would probably, by means of bakshecsh, arrangc one on purpose!

There 18 not, indeed, much diffircnec m the ceremonial between a wedding in Cano and onc im Constantinople, Algiers, o: other Mohammedan cities, and male visitors, at all events, will probably considc: the interminable ccre- monies of the mirnage fistis uu tedious and puerile

The preliminaiy negotiations are usually arranged by professional mtermcdiaries o1 match-makers, and the bride groom, as a rule, never sees his bride unveiled til the ag day of the wedding The legal preliminaries being sfisfactorily arranged, the formal festivities begin with the procession of the bride to the bridegroom’s house In the

28 Lane-Poole

SOME SIDE-SHOWS OF CAIRO 199

case of mch people, the bridal procession 15 conducted on a very elaborate scale The train 15 usually headed by buffoons, musicians, and jugglers Thin comes the bride, walkins under a canopy borne by four attendants, and sur rounded and followed by a crowd of female relatives and friends Sometimes, however, the bride and her tram of relatives atc mounted on asses, but amont, the richer classes an mcongruous note of modernity 19 sometimes zı on to the spectacle, by the bride hems driven to the houx im an ordinary Eu pean }iousham, which 3s pre- ceded by a band of music, ind the picturesyuc procesmon t tivops of dancers md singers 18 altogether dispensed with thus robbing the pigeint of the most «huracteristie { atine ot Canene wedding processions

1crmenly, in the case of weddings among the Carene tiders, the most sthiking part of the procession was a oy alcade of decorated cais cach contuning members of 1 particular trade or ciaft ngaged in then special callings

m one, for instance, a huvcyy, with his assistants, and pots and cups and fin, making coffec for the spectators , ina second, makers of sweetmcats , in a thud, makers of pincakes, mn a fourth, silk lace manufacturcrs ın a fifth, 1 silk weaver with his loom, in a sixth, tinners of copper vessels at ther work In short, almost cvery manufacture and trade had its representatives in 9 separite wagon” This vehicular Arts and Crafts Exlibition 1s copied now- a days in many Continental carnival processions

‘Lhe bude and her party having arrived at the house, the wedding banquet takes plave The bridegroom, however, 18 not present, and in fact does not sce his future wife until the end of the day The repast 1s followed by what would in modern parlance be called a reception, and the: long-suffering bride, for all the rest of the day, 1s literally on show to the throng of invited guests, which usually num- ber many European ladies It would, of course, be con-

200 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

trary to the etiquette of the Mohammedans for the chief personage to respond in any way to the felicitations of her friends, and for the whole of the day she remains silent and motionless, on a kind of throne at one end of the room.

Meanwhile, etiquette requires that the bridegroom should in the mean time visit the bath and the mosque, attended by his friends and acquaintances.

“ Returned to his house, he leaves his friends and attendants ın a lower apartment, and goes up to the bide, whom he finds seated with a shawl thiown over her head, so as to conceal her face com- pletely, and attended by one or two females. The latter he induces to retire by means of a small present. He then gives a present of money to the bride, as ‘the price of uncovering hei dace,’ and hav- ing removed the coveling (saying, as he does so, ‘In the name of Gnd, the Compassionate, the Merciful’), he beholds her, generally for the first time. On the occasion of his first visit, he is recom- mended to perfume himeelf, and to sprinkle some sugar almonds on the head of the bride and on that of each Woman with her. Also, when he approaches het, he should perform the prayer of the rekas, and she should do the same, 1f able ”

Among the upper classes of the Cairenes and the official Turkish families the spectacular portion of the bridal pro- cession is shorn of much of its glory, though the rites and ceremonies in the house are carried ‘out in the orthodox manner. The bride and her friends are in carriages, and are escorted to the husband’s house by troops of soldiers and officials of all ranks; for Western manners and customs are outwardly, at least, being steadily assimilated by the upper classes in Egypt as in Turkey. It is only the lower classes in Cairo who are consistently conservative in all their modes of life.

The notoriously inferior and degraded position which won occupy in countries under the yoke of Islam, which is the chief blot on the Mohammedan social system, is even symbolised in some of the apparently meaningless forms

SOME SIDE-SHOWS OF CAIRO 201

and ceremonies of an Egyptian wedding Though univer- sal cquality and fraternity are the cardinal principles of the Moslem cult, women are altogether excluded from the bencfits of these liberal tenets The essential inferionty ot the gentler sex 4s, indecd, a part of the Mohammedan rlizion Innumerable passages in thc Koran testify to the vicw taken by the founder of the Moslem taith of the mci dic ible imiquity of womankind “TI stood it the gate of Paradise,” wrote the Prophet, “ and, lo' most of its in- hilntants were the poor, and I steod at the gites of hell, ind lo' most of 1ts mhabitants wore women ”

In fact, no Mohammedan takes a woman seriously Ife scgards her as merely an ornamental appendage of his houschold, and 18 not quite satisfied that she has a soul, though the more tolerant are mclined to give her the bene- ft of the doubt All ove: the East, women are the 11ch man’s tovs and the poor man’s slaves “The worst of this dı plorable state of things,” writes Mr Stanley Lane-Poole, “13 that there scems no reasonable prospect of umprove- ment The Mohammedan socal system 15 so thoroughly hound up with the rchgion thit it appcars an almost hope- lca task to separate the two As long as the Moham- melan rehgion ewusts, the social lfe with which ıt has unfortunately become identitied will probably survive, and Whilst the latter prevails in Egypt, we cannot expect the higher results of civilisation ”’

CHAPTER XVI THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZKH

ERHAPS there 1s no single ancient monument in existence which has been so much witten about as the Pyramid of Cheops, usuilly known 1s the Gieat Pyia mid The nimbe of volumes devoted to this mausoleum would, in fict, fill 2 ac¢spectible bruy The wildest theories have been ventilited im an attempt to solve the meimng and count for the object of the Pyramid To quote only a iew Sonu hive supposed, with ı sub lime m lifference to the idaptition of w 1y% and means, that they were intended medly to act is m mdestiuctible metncal stıindud Phnv thought that they were built mainly to give the people employment m tact, to serve the same purpose as publu works subsidised by modern gov ernments in time of tami, pligue, o1 great national dis- tress Others held, and this theory long maintained its ground, that the pertect oricntation oft the Pyramids ındi- cated that they were built for astronomical purposes By medi eval chroniclers, when Ezyptian chronology was at @ discount, they were said to have been built by Joseph fol granaries Many writers, however, contented themsclves with at- tubuting a mercly symbolical motive to the Pyramids Perhaps the most original idea was that of a French sajant, who held that the Py1amids were built as a barrier cect the cities on the banks of the Nile from sand- storms Now, happily, the fables, speculations, and muiscon-

ceptions to which these structures have given rise are, for 202

THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZEH 208

the most part, exploded. The overwhelming weight of evidence, the fruit of the exhaustive researches of trained observers and scientists, 1s m favour of their having simply been used as royal tombs

The stupendous sıze of these carps, the incalgulable amount of labour their building entailed, is not, however, so extraordmary as the astonishing axchitectuial shill shown ın the construction. As Fergusson observes m his

Pistory of Architecture,” notwithstending the immense superincumbent weight, no settlement mm any part can be dc tected to an appreciable fraction of an inch In short, what probably first stiikes the spectato: 1s 1ts matter, and then 1ts manner of construction

An architect cannot help bemy amazed at the wonderfal shll and elaboration of the workmanship, “the flatness ind squareness of the joints is extraordinary, equal to opticians’ work of the present day, but on a scale of acres mstead of feet of material The squareness and level of the base ıs brilliantly true, the average error being ‘less than a ten thousandth of the sıde ın equalıty, ın square- ness, and in level ” 1

The real meaning and true inwardness of the Pyranyds 18 admirably suggested in the following passage in Prof. Flinders-Petrie’s “ History of Egypt,’ now im prepara- tion

The essential feeling of all the earhest works of the ancient I zvptians 1s a mvalry with Nature In other times buildrags have Leen placed either before a background of hulls, sa as to proMlde a, natural setting for them, or erownmg some natural height But the Fgyptian consented to o such tame coöperation with patu- Tal features He selected a range of desert-hılls over a hundred feet high, and then subdued it entirely, making of 1¢ a mere pedestal for Pyramida, which were more than thrice as high as the native- hill ae Which they stood. There was no shrinking from # comparison the werk af Nature, but, on the contrary, sn artifieial hill wae

sW. FinderwPegris.

204 THE CITY Ok THE CALIPHS

formed which shrunk its natural basis by comparison until ıt seemed a mere platform fcr the work of man ‘This same grandeur of idea 1s seen in the vist masses used 1n construction Man did not then 1egird his work as 1 y1ling together of stones but as the erection of mass s that riv illed those of Nature

It 15 scarcely necessary to recapitulate here the popular information bout the Pyranuds, which 1s to be found dc scribed it length in all gmde books Every Lgyptian trar eller 19 awarc that thcse buildings are royal tombs, built by the first thiec sovcrcizns of the fowth dynasty, Khufu Khafra, and Monk wi1a(or popularly, Chcops Chephren, and Mycermus) that they arc probably the oidcst monuments In tolerable picsery ition in I xypt dating f1o9m 2 yeriod so remote that ilmost as many ccnturcs separate them from the famous tomples of Abydos Ihches md Abou Simbel as separate they. fimous ruins {iem the great buildings of the Ptoluemes We all know thit the Pyramids were built of hmcstonc from the Luria quarrics on the othcr side of the Nile and cascd with polished »1anite, which was lad unde: contribution, after the A1abs4 conquest, to build the walls and mosques of Cairo

At the nsh of boring my readers, 1 will venture to quote a few statistics Accordiny to the litst mcasurements (Petrie), the height of the Py1amid of Cheops 1s 401 feet It may be intresting to comy 11¢ 1t with other great build Ings, ancient ind modern ‘Thc Washington monument at Washington, D © ,18 555 fect high, and the Fiffel Tower 984, while the dome of St Peters Roine, 1s but 429 feet high Each side 1s 755 fect at the bise, 30 that a walk round the Great Pyramid would be a little over half a mile in length Perhaps this will convey a bette: notion of its size than thegpften-quoted statement that the area 1s thirteen acres, exactly that of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, and about four times the area of the Capitol at Washington The weight of this truly royal sepulchre 1s computed at seven mullion

THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZEH 205

tons Perhaps the fact that St Pete.’s of Rome could be accted in this Pyramid, supposing ıt were hollow, and the curious computation of a French saint that the stones ıt the three Pyramids (Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerimus) would be sufheicnt to make 4 wall six fect high and on ty »t wide all round France, biings home to the spectators t clearcr 1dea of the size of the Gicat Pyramid than whole piges of diy figures (onsiderable doubt has been thrown }\ commentators n Hcrodotuss funous account i the butlding of the Pyramids, cspecially in regard to thc passage in which he declares thit the Pyramid of Cheops was the restlt of the labours of 100 000 men, who worked three months a v u for twenty yeas, it the task Prof Blindcis Petrie, however, makes out 2 convincing ind excellently reasoned case m favour of the accuracy of Hirodotus’s statment The actual work was probably (igamscd as follows Each year, towards the end of July, when the Nile had funly sen, the men would assemble Iho blocks of stone average about two and a half tons, and cach would require not Jess than cight men Supposing; then, each zang brouzht over and placed in position ten or 1 dozen blocks durm,z the three months corvée, and reckon- ing that some 2,300,000 stoncs— the calculation of the best authorities — would be required for the Great Pyramid, it will at once be seen that the total number could easily be brought over and the Py ramid built in rather less time than the twenty years mentioned by the Greek histonan. In fact, there seems no reason to diser: dit the tıadıtıonal account of the methods employed in carrying out what seems at first sight an almost superhuman enterprise Then it must be remcmbercd that the transport of these colossal blocks to the site of the Pyramids would be much facilitated, owing to the inundation They could be trane- ported in boats or barges mght up to the edge of the plateau

206 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

The ascent of the Gieat Py1amid, as usually undertaken, is not only absolutely fiec fiom danger, but requires no climbing abilities ıt all, ın fact, a child of sıx would have no difficulty m 1¢aching the summit The only objection 18 that it 1s 1athc: tryinz to the wind and temper, owing to the heat of the sun = 'wo or thice Arabs practically haul the visitor up to the top, and, unlcss the tourist 18 strong minded enough to take the muitiativc, only a couple of halts are as a lule allowed the bicathlcss climber and at these resting places he will be pesteicd with unattached Arabs offering him water and cl unouine for baksheesh

We are supposing of course that the travcllcar 19 “doing ’ the Pyramids in the convcntionil wiy, with onc of a band of tourists miushallcd ly the satcllitus of once of the gre it tourist agencics, Who arrive cvery morning from Cairo dui ing the season The main obj ct of the conductor being to get lis party bach to thi hotel by lunch time, the exam ination of the Sphina, the Iecmple of thi Sphinx, and otha sights 1s, of course, perfunctory in the extreme The Arabs cannot, at any rite, rcasonably be blamed for the hurried manner in which the asccnt 1s performed Naturally, their aim 18 to conduct as many tourists to the top as possible in the day

The summit reached 1 migmificent vicw may be enjoyed during the regulation hilf hour’s rest The Delta of the Nile, intcrspersed with countless channels and rivulets winding about hke silver threads, seems to resemble the silver filigree ornaments of Giecce Looking down at Cairo, from which the silver threads radiate, one 18 reminded of the fanciful Oriental comparison of the Delta with “a fan fastened with a diamond stud” The spectator’s poetical fan@es, however, are soon put to flight by clamorous demands for baksheesh

While resting on the summit, the Arab version of the Cumberland guides’ race may be witnessed, as any of the

THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZEH 207

Arab guides for a few piastres (at first the Arab will mag- ninimously offer to do the feat tor five shillings) 1s quite willing to race up and down the Gieat and Second Pyramids m ten minutes The feat of climbing the Second Pyramid (Chephien’s) might bc tte: not be emulated by the ordinary tourist, as the smooth gianite casing still :omains for some hundred and fifty fut trom the top ‘lo a mountamrer or crassmin howevcr, the climb 1s merc elnid'’s niay but (vk an caperienced climbe: would bette: not attempt it n ordinary boots Furmshed with ordmary tcnmis shoes there would be httle difficulty Mark Twain as 16 well known, thought little ot thc teat The above d scription will serve as an illustrati n of how not to do the Pyramids The best plan, and onc which can be 1¢commended even to th hurticd tounst, is to stay the yrcceding mght at the Mina House hotel ind make the ascent carly m the mamng, before tht daily mcursion of the tourists from (mo

But ın order to 1erhse the stupendous bulk and the immensity of the Greit Pyr wmd, it 18, perhaps, better to ficgo the ascent altogether To persons of in asthetic or Imisinative temperament, this some what banal and common- } lice expedition is decidedly disillusionising Hauled hke i bale of goods up this gigintic stancase of something like two hundicd steps, —to be accurate, 206, for everything pertuninz to the structure of thc Pyramnd has been c\haustively examined, noted, measured, and tabulated, — by grinning and chattering A:abs, the visitor 1s scarcely in 3 position to appreciate properly the grandeur or the solemnity of this vast mouument If, instead of following the hordes of tourists to the summit, we stand a few hundred yards away and quietly examine this wonderful result of a civilisation of nearly five thousand years ago, gradually an overwhelming sense of their stupendous bulk and immensity Will be experienced

208 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

It is not easy to reproduce in imagination these magnifi- cent sepulchres as they appeared in their full glory some five thousand jcars ago. In this connection it is worth quoting Dean Stanley’s graphic description, in his “ Sina and Palestine,” although a hypercritical reader may perhaps feel disposed to pick holes in the author’s archeology, — fo1 instance, 1t 18 now well known that the ancient Egyptians never inseribed the exteriors of the Pyramids. but the Dean, though a man of wide culture, never laid claim to a profound knowledge of Egyptology :

“The smooth casing of pait of the top of the Second Pyramid and the magnitient griumte blocks which form the lower stans of the Third, sive to show what they must have been all from top te bottom The First ind Second brillant white or yelow lmestone, smooth from top to bottom instead of those rude, disjomted masses which then stuppcd aides now ynesent the Third, all glowing with the red granite from the Tairst Cituact Asat is they have the barbarous look of Stonchenge but then they must have shone with the polish of an age already rich m civilsition, — and that the more remarkable, when it 15 1¢ membered thit these granite blocks which furnish the outside of the Third, and the inside of the First, must have come all the way fromthe First C itiract It also seems, from Herodotus and others that these smooth outsides were covered with sculptures Then you must build up o1 uncover the massive tombs, now broken o1 covered with sand, 80 a5 to restore the aspect of vast streets of tombs, like those on the Appian Way, out ot which the Great Pyramid would arise, like a cathedral above smaller churches Lastly, you must enclose the two other Pyramids with stone precincts and gigantic gateways, and, above all, you must restore the Sphinx, as he was ın the days of his glory ”

After the ascent, the exploration of the interior will probably be undertaken. This trip, though far more tiring than the climb to the summit, is particularly interesting, di should not be omitted. Ladies, however, unless accus- tomed to scrambling, are not recommended to visit the interior. As in all the Pyramids, the entrance is on the northern side. After descending a gallery some sixty feet,

THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZEH. 209

the passage which leads to the Great Gallery is reached. The inclined passage continues to a subterranean (or rather avb pyramidal, tor, of course, all the galleries and chambers in the interior are, 1n a sense, subterranean) chamber, known as the Queen’s Chamber, which 1s rarely visited by ordinary tourists The ongim of the names of the two chambers is curious and fortuitous ‘These names were given first by the Arabs, in conformity with thei custom of making men’s ton bs flat-topped, and those for women with a concave roof. As these names happcned to accord with the facts, they have teen adopted by Egy ptologists, as well as by the pub- le The Great Gallery, still mounting upwards, leads to the King’s Chamba, a 100m some seventy-tour feet long, s vantccn broad, and mncteen gh The roof 1s flat, and Jymed of simple blocks of granite, resting on the side wills, which are built of the same materials; “and so truly and hcautifully are these blocks fitted together, that the edge of a penkmft could not be mse1ted between them.” (Mutray’s (ride )

Hor is the famous sarcophagus — the rawon d'étre, indecd, of the Gicat Pyramid —in which the remains of Bing Cheops, no doubt, once rested. The discovery of this red gradite coffin did not, 1t 15 needless to say, upset the piceonceived fantastic theory of Piazzi Smyth. Though obviously a sarcophagus, the profcsso: did not allow him- self to be disconcerted, but declared that it was a coffer intended as an indestructible measure of capacity to all time!

Many traditions and myths have centred round the Pyra- mid of Mycermus (Third Pyramid), which 1s still said to be haunted. A Coptic legend, which recalls the myth of the sirens in the Odyssey, tells the story of a beautiful woman enthroned on this pyramid, who allures desert way- farers from the South and West, embraces them ın her arms, and deprives them of reason.

210 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

Fair Rhodoye as story tells

The tight unearthly nymph, who dwells Mid sunless gold ind jewels hid

Th lady of th Ly1amid

Students of folk lorc are well aware that the germ of most of our nms} tilcs can be traced back to the legendary stories of the 1¢ motcst iges of antiquity , and a story of this same Rhodope, told by the“ 1 athci of History, ’ Herodotus suggests the source of the nuisci1y Icgcnd of Cinderella While bathing in the Nile, an Cagle flew off with onc of he sandals, and, carrying it to Memphis, dropped it at the fe t of the king Myccrinus (Venkaura) Struck by its beauty, he sent out his messengers m ill dincctions to find thc owne of this httle sandal mnd when they had found hia, he made her hisquecn = =Lhus too, in many of the pictorial sculptures in the temples of Thebes cin be traced prototypes of the characters in the Arabian Nizhts’ Stories

Campbclls Tomb 15 the best known of the royal sepul chres of this gcat cemetery ot ancient | zyptian sovereigns It 15 so called mm accordance with the popular and illogical method of nomenclature which formerly obtained, of nam ing tombs aftc1 some modcin notability instcad of the ten ant, —1in this case afte: the British consul gencial at the time of the discovery of the tomb by Coloncl Howaid Vysc It 18 comparatively modcin, beimy attributed by scholars to the twenty-si,th dynasty, when that of Sais, with the help of Greek mercenaries, ove: ran Egypt The tomb 1s reallv a pit about fifty five feet decp, at the bottom 15 4 small chamber, in which were found four sarcophagi, one of which was given to the British Museum It s a usual feat of the Arab guides to clymb down the almost perpen- @ular sides of the shaft, but if strangers wish to explore the tomb chamber, they will have to be let down by a rope, —a feat which, considering the little there 1s to see at the bottom, 1s rarely performed There are numerous other

THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZEH. 911

tombs in the extensive necropolis which surrounds the Pyramids, but they are not of popular interest. The sight- seeng of most visitors to the Pyramid field will, in short, he confined to the ascent of the Great Pyramid, possibly a visit to the interior, a hasty glimpse of the Sphinx, Camp- bell’s Tomb, and the Sphinx Temple.

The Sphinx, for thousands of years the greatest enigma mn Egypt, has not succeeded in baffling the investigations of ı ‘dern antiquarians, who have stripped it of much of the mystery which constituted its great charm. Its builder, however, is still a matter of conjecture with students of Egyptology. It is now conclusively proved that it 18 noth- mg but a colossal image of the Egyptian deity, E[armachis, the “god of the morning,” and, therefore, of his human representative, the king (unknown) who had it hewn. A stela found by Mariette, near the Great Pyramid, shows that the Sphinx was probably repaired by Cheops and Chephren, the builders of the Great and Second Pyramids respectively.

The Sphina is not an independent structure, like the Pyramids, but is for the most part hewn out of the rocky cliff, or promontory, which juts out here from the desert platean. The body and head are actually hewn out of this living rock, but sandstone masonry has been built up to connect the natural outline. The measurements given in many of the books of reference are ot little value, as they vary according to the amount of sand which had drifted round the statue; but the latest measurements of Professor Petrie give the length of the body as 140 feet, while the head measures thirty feet from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin. The height of the Sphinx, from the forehead to the base of the monument, is seventy feet.

Some successful excavations at the foot of the Sphinx have recently been undertaken by an American Egyptolo- gist, Colonel Ram. In 1896 he discovered the kleft, or stone cap, with the sacred asp on the forehead, which was

212 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

known to have once been the head-covering of the Sphinx. Dean Stanley, for instance, in his ‘Sinai and Palestine,” wonders, apropos of the colossal head, “what the sight must have been when on its head there was the royal helmet of Egypt.”

A thorough and systematic excavation of this colossal figure, and the removal of the steadily encroaching desert sands which have buried the greater portion of the body, is much to be desired. The cost, however, would be enor- mous, amounting at least to that of a whole year’s excava- tion carried out by the joint efforts of the National Museum and the Egyptian Exploration Society. Such a work should be undertaken by private enterprise. If another public- spirited man like Sir Krasmus Wilson would provide the funds for the work, it is believed that discoveries of the greatest importance would repay the work of excavating. The late Miss A. B. Edwards, indeed, was of opinion that the greatest find in the whole field of Egy ptian antiquities is likely to be round the base of the Sphinx, “ which probably marks the site of a necropolis, buried a hundred fect in the sand, of the kings of the first and second dynasties ! ”

The first view of the Sphinx is, undoubtedly, striking and impressive in the highest degree, but it must be admitted that the conventional rhapsodics of modern writ- ers who enlarge on the beauty of its features are over- strained. Before the figure hud been mutilated by Mussulman fanatics, it is possible that the medieval critics were justi- fied in speaking of the Sphinx as a model of human sym- metry, wearing “an expression of the softest beauty and the most winning peace.” Now, however, the traveller is Bonfronted by a much disfigured stone giant, with a pain- fully distortea mouth, broken nostrils, and the grimace of a hideous negro.

But though there is little concrete beauty in this

THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZEH. 218

colossal figure, there 1s an undeniable fascination about the Sphinx, due to 1ts impressive surroundings, 118 mysteri- ous traditions, and its solemn imusobility of expression, To realise the charm of this monument, we must read the classic and oft-quoted description of Kinglake, who, in a passage of incomparable prose, has succreded where so many writers have failed

And near the Pyramids more wondioua ini wore awful thart wl else in the land of I gypt there sits the lonely Sphinx Comely the creature 19 but the comeliness s n t vf this world the once worshiped beast 18 a deformity and a monster t this generation, aul vet vvu cam see that those lips 5 thick ar lh wy were fash- ined acecr ting to scm ancient moull f{ beanty some mould of l auty n s 1 rgotten —forgotten' ri thit Grecee drew forth ( ytherea fr m the flashing foam of the 4#gein and in her mage creited new forms ct teauty and mil it a lw among men that the short 11 proudfy wieath d hys sh ull stand for the sign and the an con ition of loveliness through all generations to come Yet still ther lives on the race ot th se wh» were beautiful in the fashton

t the eller world and Christian girls of Coptic blood will look on you with the sad serious ge and kiss your chamtable hand with the big poutit g lips of the very Sphin«

I mgh and mock 1f you will at the worship of stone idols, but murk ye this ye Lreak rs of images that in one regard, the stone 1 lol bears awful semblance of Deity, — unc hangefulnese in the mrdat

f change — the same seeming will and intent for ever sad ever m- «xorable! Upon ancient dynasties of Ethiopian and Egyptian kings, upon Greek and Roman, upon \rab and Ottoman conqueror, Upon Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern empire, upon batétlé and pestilence, upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian race, upon keen-eyed trav- ellers — Herodotus yesterday and Warburton to-day, — upon sll and more this unworldly Sphinx has watched and watched lıke a Pron- dence with the same earnest eyes, and the same sad, tranquil mien. (nd we — we shall die, and Islam will wither away, and the Eng- lshman, strainmg forever to hold his loved India, will plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile, and sit in the seate of the faithful, and still that sleepless rock will he watching and watehing thd works of the new busy race, with those seme sad, earnest-eyes, andi = = trangu) mien everlasting. Zou dare not moek at the

pang |”

214 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

A short distance south of the Sphinx is the so-called Temple of the Sphinx, a structure, probably, of the fourth dynasty. The sand drift of thousands of years has so covered it that the non-observant traveller would suppose the Temple to be a subterranean building. The Temple is a worthy pendant of the mighty mausoleum, to which it seems to serve as a kind of mortuary chapel, for the dis- covery here of the famous green basalt statue of Khafra (Chephren), which we have seen in the Ghizeh Museum, is held by most authorities to prove that this sovereign was the builder of this temple, as well as the Second Pyramid. In short, it is probably the mastaba of this sepulchre. The building is a fine specimen of the architecture of the Ancient Empire. It is lined in some parts with huge blocks of alabaster.

CHAPTER XVII THF CITY OF THE SACRFD BULL

HE ius of Memphis and the necropolis of Sakkarah are most convementl, ruhel by tamer or tram ft m Curo to Bedrashcn, a small village on the banks of the Nile i! sut fifteen miles fiom the aty Yost Egyptian wntiıquarı m- and historians agre im wstirning the date of its foundation to Mcncs, the first historical as opposed to the quisi mythic al god-hings, kmg of Egypt At all events, this ancicnt capital 14 certamly of a very remote antiquity It is not dificult to undcrstand why the kings of the Ancicnt Empire estiblished their capital herc Its situation wis of distinct political, commercial, and strategic value liom the comparatively fecble tribes on the western bank of the Nile there was no dange: of attack, while a city on the eastern bank would imvite attacks from the inhabitants f Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia Then, in addition to its natural advantages of a fertile and well-wooded soil, the aty was not far from the seacoast, and occupying a fairly ccntial position in Egypt, and having command of the Nie, it would control the country from Phile, on the south, to the Mediterranean, on th north. Under the fcurth and siith dynasties, whose kings sprang from Memphis, the city reached a height of splendour which was probably never excelled; but the mse of Thebes, in the eighteenth dynasty, considerably diminished the glories ot Memphis, and though it was still an important city, Thebes was the metropolis of all Egypt After the New Empire, Memphis declined in importance, and from that period its history is very similar 215

216 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

to that of Heliopolis, — another historic city, of which scarcely any ruins remain Both cities were taken and retaken in turn by Assyrian, Ethiopian, Persian, and Greck invaders. It was giadually shorn of most of its glories, and the founding of Alexandria was the final blow, fulfil- ling the gloomy prophecy of Jeremah “O daughte: of Egypt, make ready that which cin scive thee in thy cap- tivity, because Memphis shall hccome a desert, she shall be forsaken, and become ummhabited” Such, in brief, 18 the outline of the history of this oncc famous city

Those who have visited Thebes, with its mech trcasure- trove of magmficent temples and monumcnts, arc, per- haps, a httle puzzled to account for the total disappear- ance of a city which, though some two thousand years older than the City of the Thousand Gites, possesscd many buildings of the age of the ninc tenth and twentieth dynasties, of late: dite than miny of Thcbes’s famous buildings It 15, however, necessary to remember the very different conditions lu the first plau, Memphis lay in the path of all the invading nations who overthiew Egypt in turn. Then Thebes had no Tostat o1 Caro it 1ts threshold, —a city winch was literally built out of the :ums of Mem- phis and Heliopolis Then, too, the devastating character of the Nile mundation, to which low-lying Memphis was peculiarly subject, must not be forgotten As Miss Brodrick, in Murray’s admirable Handbook, aptly observes, the waters of the inundation, long ago unrestrained by the protecting dykes, covered the plain with a gradually mcieasing layer of mud deposit, beneath which every trace of such ruins as were left completely disappeared.

The only antiquities which remain to us of Memphis itself # for the pyramids, tombs, ete, are quite distinct, and form part of the Mempinan cemctery at Sakkarah — are the two colossal statues of Rameses II This vainglorious monarch seems indeed to frave been as fond of erecting

THE CITY OF THE SACRED BULLS. O17

these portraits in stone of himself as modern sovereigns are of being photographed. At Thebes, Tanis, Abou Sim- bel, and other sites, have been discovered other monolithic counterfeit presentments of this much-portrayed ruler. These two statues, in all probability, stood at the entrance of the famous Temple of Ptah, the tutelary god of Memphis. One is recumbent; the other was raised in 1887, by Major Bignold and his engineers. The monarch is now conecaled under a hideous, roofless shed. The statue is about forty- two fect high; that is, not quite half as tall as the colossal mokeu portrait-statue of the same monarch, recently discov- red on the site of Tanis by Prof. Flinders-Petrie. This is the largest colussus eve sculptured by the hand ot man, and when complete was ninety-two feetdhigh. The Memphian ‘ologsus was presented to the British Museum in 1840. in view, however, of the almost msuperable difficulty of conveying it across the desert sands to the Nile, and the cnormous cost, the offer had to be declined. For though this statue is much exceeded in bulk and weight by Cleo- patra’s Needle, yet, owing to the position of this obelisk, situated within a short distance of the Alexandrian coast, the task of its removal was comparatively easy.

The Memphian necropolis at Sakkarah may, however, be ‘onsidered sacred ground to the Egy ptologist and historian. It was here that the carliest work of Wgyptian mural sculpture was discovered. This is the famous funerary tablet, which may now be seen at the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford. Its period is the second dynasty, whieh means that the stela was carved about 4000 8.c. Then, among the tombs of the New Empire (the conventional term given by modern historians to denote the golden age of the eight- centh to the twenty-fifth dynasties), was found the famous, and still more valuable historically, stela, known as the Tablet of Sakkarah. This, with the Abydos tablet, certain fragments of Manetho’s history, and the Turin papyrus

218 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

are the chief authentic sources from which we derive our knowledge of the earliest period of Egyptian history

A very valuable collection of Greek papy11 (Bc 168) was found on this sit carly in the present century, which 18 now 1n the British Muscum Apart from its antiquarian value, its intrinsic and likiiry intercst 1s considerable The papyi consist tor the most part of letters, reports, petitions, and other documents chronicling the eftorts of a certain Maccdoni im monk, called Ptolemy, im behalf ot two female cmploy¢s m the Scrapeum, who were bung defrauded by the oflicials of them modest allowance In short, the record 18 a vélitabln humin document, palpitating with actuality, to wopt the cxprcssive slang of the da)

The clicf object of interest in the Memphian ccmetery of Sakkarah 1s the Miusolcum of the Divine Bulls, usually known as the Serapeum, which i9 the teim popularly but mceoricctly applud to the sers of underground mortuary chamhers ın whith were buicd these sacred bulls, from 650 Bc to 5b BC It 18,no doubt, the most popular feature of this great necropolis and probably, to nine out of ten persons who have visited Sakkarih, it 1s the chicf attrac tion

This remarkable mausoleum was discovered as recently as 1850, by Mariette Hi: had noticed, in the course of excavations in various parts of Ezypt, sphinxes upon which were inscribed dedications to Osiris Apis (Greek, Serapis), and conjectured that thc) must have some reference to the long-lost Temple of Serapis, near Memphis, spoken of by Strabo He was fortunate in his preliminary excavations on the srte of this buried city, and soon lit upon the vaults in which the bulls were buried Over sixty vaults were ddA vered Only one part of this bovine necropolis 18 now shown to visitors It contains twenty-four granite sarcoph- agi, and they measure on an average thirteen feet long, seven feet broad, and eleven feet high

THE CITY OF THE SACRED BULLS. 219

By one enormous niche, leaning against a sarcophagus rifled by Christian plunderers in the time of Theodosius, and desecrated by fanatics of other creeds, stands a ladder, up which we may climb, and cast a glance at the interior of the tomb, which was destined to preserve to all time the coal-black body of the sacred bull. The lid of the coffin has heen moved aside ; a heap of stones is piled up on one pile of it. The mummy of the animal has disappeared. The treasures which gathered here, brought as pious offer- ings, have long been carried off by unknown treasure- secheis. The strange surroundings seem quite legendary. The giants who were their creators seem beings from another and an unknown world.

The weight of these sarcophagi was so great that all the efforts of Marictte’s engineers to remove them, for trans- port to Ghizeh, were absolutely ineffectual. This is indivectly a striking testimony to the wonderful resources of the ancient Egyptians, to whom such a task would have been child’s play in comparison with the undertaking of removing the obelisks from Assouan to Lower Egypt. No remains of the sacred animals were found in any of the sarcophagi, all of which had evidently been rifled, probably at the time of the Arabian conquest of Egypt.

The history of the animal worship of the ancient Egyp- tians offers innumerable subjects of interest to the theolo- gian, as well as to the anthropologist and historian.

One of the most characteristic features of the ancient Egyptian faith was the reverence paid to certain animals, In some places the people worshipped the crocodile; in others, the cat; in others, again, certain mythical birds and beasts; but especially it was the bull that was adored. At Heliopolis this animal was called Mnevis. At Mem- phis it was Apis who was reverenced.

According to common belief, either the lightning or a moonbeam fecundated a cow, and the divinity then appeared

220 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

upon earth in the shape of a bull Special distinguishing marks guided the scarch for the sacred bull among the local herds It sometimes happened that for years the priests were unable to discover the particular animal which by certan complex external marks, corresponded to the ideal Apis The discoverc: of the mearnation of the god Apis was rewardcd with in ımnıcnse fortune The elect animil wis next tamcd, as far as possib'e, and then at the {nst new moon 1t was takcn in 1 sacrcd buat of gold to Mcmphis, whore it wis placed in the sanctuary of Ptah A special court wis assigned for its cxcrcise, and when it wis in its still the fiuthtul strove to pecp in at it through the window Extraordinary ware the divine honours pud to this quad ruped The Phuiohs sparcd no money in making 18 worship as splendid i8 possble Alkximda the Great and the Romin Limperor Litus found it c\pedicnt to offer up sacrifices to Apis, who wis beluved to be endowed with prophetic powers, and who forctold the future in a peculia mannc: When thc sacred hull licked the zarments of 2 noted Grech astronomcr, it sisnificd that the latter was to die soon, and this really ciumi to piss A similar mcanmg the pricsts saw in its refusal to take food from the hands of Germanicus Its bellowing foretold a forcign conquest Those who consulted Apis used to guess into which of his stalls he would next enter. It the gucss was correct, then the answer to the question was afhrmative, and vece versa People slept in his temple, hoping for prophetic dreams Sometimes questions were addresscd directly to the bull, and the inquirers then hstened to the voiccs of the children a without the wall of the temple , and a saying having bearing on the matte: was then constructed out of the disconnected expressions which reached the ear. When Apis was led out among the people, the accompanying youths, in a state of extreme ecstasy, sang and prophesied.

THE CITY OF THE SACRED BULLS 221

At home Apis dwelt behind purple curtains, slept on a soft lcd, ate and drank out of vessels of gold and silver But though the sacred bull was adored in this extraor- linazy fashion, 1f he hyved too long (above the age of tyenty aight, at which aze Osiris died), then the priests, ttucd im mournin,g girments, lcd the horned embodiment ct the zod im state to the Nile, and solt mnly drowned him there Those of the sicred bulls wlich ded a natural d ith wore cmbalmcd and buricd with indcseribable pomp, 1 «\pense boing spared for this purpose Priesta remark 1! {1 them moral inflycnec wore, on rare occasions hon u d by bunal ncar the sacred bulls Whol rows of tombs, in vaults of corresponding size, sc in this subterrincin cemetery The futhful came lithe: to worship, and imsciibed their nunes on spcuial ii | ts of stone, which still remun her, with the precise lit of cach visit These votive tiblits are of the greatest list nical valuc, as they menti m the length of thi reign of th hing in which eich Apis bull was born and buried Ihe story of the slaughta: df the sacicd bull hy Camby- 65 1s familiar to all students of history The Persian ( nyucror had, in the earher: period of bis rule in Egypt, att mpted to gun favour with the pricsts hv patronising the native cult, and getting imitated into the mysteries ind ceremonics of its worship After the utter collapse (f the il] advised expedition to Dthiopia (B c 530) Camby- scs s3 tolcrance of the Egyptian religion was turned into the most bitter hostihty Hurıyıng bach to Memphis from Nuha, after the loss of a mret portion of his army, he fund that the population were holding festival because the god Apis had just mamifested himself in a new steer, which had been duly consecrated by the priests In a paroxysm of rage, Cambyses o1dered the priests to be beaten with rods, the worshippers of Apis to be massacred, and the Sacred animal to be brought to his presence Rating hs

222 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

sword, the enraged king killed the innocent animal with his own hand, to the horror of the whole native population. The actual cpitaph written on this bovine martyr was found by Marictte, and is now to be read in the Musée Egypticn, in the Louvre.

A dramatic element is given to the discovery of the sepulchral chambers of the bulls, in the fact that when Marictte effected an entrance he found on the layer of sand that covered the floor the actual footprints of the work- men who, 8700 years before, had laid the sacred mummy in its tomb, and closed the door upon it, as they believed, forever.)

Owing to most travellers visiting Sakkharah and Memphis after Ghizch, the Pyramids here usually come in for only very perfunctory notice. Yet the one known as the Step Pyramid — platform or terrace pyramid would perhaps con- vey a more accurate idca — is even in point of dimensions a noble monument. It is about 197 feet high. Unlike most pyramids, the sides are of unequal length, — the north and south faces being 351 feet, while the other sides are cach 39+ fect.

If Mariette is correct in attributing it to a king of the third dynasty, this pyramid or the Sphinx must be the old- est historic building in the world. It must have been in existence some five centuries before a single stone was laid of the Pyramids of Cheops, and over two thousand years before Abraham was born.

A small pyramid next the Step Pyramid, known as the Pyramid of Unas (fifth dynasty), is worth visiting. It has -been opened up at the expense of Messrs. Thos. Cook and Sons, the well-known tourist agents. This was the sepul- ch@ of the monarch a portion of whose mummified remains are to be seen in the Ghizeh Museum. It constitutes,

1 For some portions of this description of the Serapeum, I am indebted to an admirable account in the volume which chronicles the Eastern travels of tbe present Czar of Russia in 1891-92.

THE CITY OF THE SACRED BULIS 298

indeed, the oldest historical mummy in any collection mn the wold The official responsible for the descriptive latcls attached to the various objects in this museum 18 presumably lacking in a sinse of the ridictlous The label illixcd to the case containing the mummified débris of this s veraizn bears the following humuili iting, if justly descrip- ty tte ‘biagmcnts of king Unas’’!

Ih small pyramids of Tcti, Pep, und other kings show th marked degencration in workmanship cumpared with u Ghizch pyramids For mstance the masonry, ust ad { hewn stone, 1s a kind of 1ubble formed of stone flakcs fil] lim with loose chips

b sidcs the valuatle discoveries by Mariette m recent \urv itions in this pyramid field ready alluded to, were

mc t mb paintings which throw f1¢sh light on the disputed jicstion of the origin of chess Tithe rto, 1t was assumed that the ancient Indians had invented the zame that it was ntr duced from India to Porsi in the sixth century , and hat im consequence of the Crusadcs, it spreid from East t West Lhis theory was substantiated hy the tact that in Indian, Persian, and Arabic influence is traceable in the character of the fizures at present uscd, and mm some { th words connceted with the game, such as “shah ” (check), and “matt ’ (mate) Now, north of the Pyramid f king Teta, two grave chambers have been discovered which were erected for two high officials of that ruler, called kaben and Mera The grave chamber (mastaba) of the former consisted of five rooms, bult up with lunestone. Its walls are covered with exceedingly well-preserved bas- rehefs and pictures representing various sccnes Mera’s mastaba 1s, however, the most valuable At present no fewer than thirty-two halls and corridors have been n- covered Among the many wall paintings in this and other rooms, hunting and fishing scenes, a group of female mourners, the three seasons, Méra and his sons holding

224 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

each other by the hand, and Mera playing chess are to be seen King Teti belonged to the sixth dynasty, and his 1cign was assigncd by Professor Lepsius to about the year 2700 8 c Professor Brugsch, correcting this chronology, puts it batk to still gieatcr antiquity, namely, to the year 3300 B¢,—dsv thit chcss would appear to have bcen known im the onec mystcrious lind of Mizraim something hke 5200 yeus wo

The mastibrot Ti, a priest of the fifth dynasty, 15 one of the most clibor itcly decor ited tombs in I zypt, and deserves moic ittcntion thin the hurnied visitor, o: the ordinary sight suc who attempts to ¢ do’ Sakk uah ın one day, 16 able to devote toat

Tı, ıt appears hdd ı post anilogous to that of Chiel Commission of Works tor Lpyer md Lower Egypt, and he wis also Scarctary of Stit Head of the Priests, cte , m short, ud the pualld) be not profanc, this many sided tunctionay wis ukindof 1 zyptian Pooh Bah He marricd a royal princess, who shucd his tomb This, perhaps, accounts for its misnificence The chiumbers ar a sars of pictine gallerks and these tintcd sculptures give more illustrations ot «vc1y phase of hfe in Lzypt, five thousand years iso, than ac to be found m any tomb or temple yet discovered =“ These puntinzs, writes Mr Joseph Pollaid in his recently published “* Land of the Monuments,” “ depict, In a most vivid ind natural manna, the habits and customs of the dwellers on the Nile when 711 was Secretary of Stat, etc The work 1s excellcnt throughout, and all the defails are most carefully ¢«xccuted and finished , every design was sculptured in low-1clicf ind then punted The colours are wonderfully bright ind good, but when the tints have faded peeled off, the carved design remains, and we see the whole of the artist’s subject ”

The Arabic word mastaba, which means a “bendh,” — so called because its length in propgrtion to its height 18

THE CITY OF THE SACRED BULLS. 225

great, and reminded them of the long low seat common in Oriental dwellings, —is constantly occurring in descriptions of ancient Egyptian tombs. These tombs are the chief features in the Sakkarah necropolis, and a brief description of this knd of sepulchre may conveniently be added here. The mastaba is a heavy, massive building, of rectangular shape, the four sides of which are four walls symmetrically inchned towards their common centre. They vary much in size. The largest measures 170 feet long by 86 feet wide, and the smallest about 26 feet by 20 feet. In height, they vary from 13 to 30 feet. The ground on which the mastabas at Sakkarah are built is composed of rock covered with sand to the depth of a tew feet; their foundations are always on the rock. Though they have at first sight the appearance of truncated pyramids, they have nothing in common with these buildings cxcept their orientation, Which is invariably towards the true north. Mastabas are of two kinds, of stone or of brick, and are usually entered on the eastern side. A mastaba is a more complex kind of tomb than might be supposed from its exterior. Its interior Is divided into one or more mortuary chambers, a kind of anteroom for friends and relatives of the dead, a place of treat (sirdab), and the pit which was the actual tomb. The walis of the interior are sometimes sculptured, and in the lower part of the chamber is an inscribed stone tablet, or stela. At the foot of this stela a small table of offerings ts often found. A little distance from the chamber, built into the thickness of the wall at some distance from the floor, was a secret place of retreat. This niche was walled up, and the only means of communication between it and the chamber was by means of a narrow hole just large enough to admit the hand. This passage was supposed "to carry off the fumes of incense which used to be burnt in the chamber. The sepulchral pit was a square shaft sunk from the floor of theanastaba, through the solid rock, to a

226 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

depth varying from forty to sixty feet There was no com- munication from the chamber to the bottom of the pit, so %hat the mummy and its sarcophagus, when once therc, were inaccessible The mummy was not, however, simply placed at the bottom of the pit There was an opening from the bottom, excavated through the side of the shaft, which led obliquely towards the southcast The passage, as 1t proceedcd, was made large: until 1t became the sar- cophagus chamber This sarcophagus, rectangular 1n shape, was usually of lmestonc, and 1csted ın a corner ot thi chamber When the mummy had heen laid in the sarcoph agus, and the othe: arrangements completed, the entrance to the passage lcading to the sucophigus chamber was walled up, and the pit fillud with stones, carth, and sand, so that the fends of the deceased might 1easonably hope that he would rest thcre undisturlxı d forever Alas' man pro poses, and thi Egyptian Faploration Society disposes '

The age ot the mastabas discovered by Mariette 1s, of course, of the greatcst importance to historians and anti quarians He found thre: belonging to one or other of the three first dynasties, 43 of the fourth, 61 of the fifth, and 23 ot the si\th dynasties , while in the case of nine he was unable to assign a date!

1For most of this information on mastabas I am indebted to an admirable series of articles contributed by Mariette tothe Révue Archéologique ’

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE CITY OF THE SUN.

HE exact date of the foundation of Heliopolis, in spite of the great advance the science of Egyptology has mide within the last few years, 1s still conjectural. It is mobable, however, that the City of the Sun is almost as old a8 Memphis, though its period of greatest splendour dates fiom the decline of the latter city. According to the Turin papyrus, the worship of the Sacred Bulls, both at An (Ifeliopolis) and at Memphis, was established by Ka-Kau, of the second dynasty, in the year 4100 B.c. It may even he older, for some historians consider that the wording in the papyrus implies rather a revival than a primary inau- furation of the cult of Apis. The work of the sight-seer at Heliopolis is easy. There 18 only one curiosity,—the famous obelisk, the sole relic of the ancient capital which once ranked only second to Memphis in importance. This monument, being the gole object of attraction here for tourists, is naturally less per- functorily examined than are those at most other goals of travellers in Egypt, where there is an embarrassing wealth of antiquities of all kinds. It is the oldest obelisk in Egypt yet remaining erect and in situ. The materal is the usual rose-coloured granite of Assouan, the source of nearly all the Eygptian obelisks. Owing to a considerable part — some ten or a dozen feet — being buried in the goil, and to its somewhat commonplace surroundings, it lacks the dignity and impressiveness of the Theban obeliske. e annual inundation raises the soil of the Delta about 227

228 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

six inches in a century, so that the amount of deposit covering a monument is an approximate indication of its age. The monolith is covered with hieroglyphics, which, as is the case with all well-known monuments in Egypt, have been carefully deciphered by Egyptologists, though they are now almost illegible, owing to bees having utilised the deeply incised hieroglyphics for their cells.

“Though Heliopolis 1s the least monumental of all the sites of Egypt, without temple o1 tomb, nor any record but the obelisk, ıt 13 yet eloquent of greater things than the solemn Py1amids of Mem phis, or the sto1ed temples of Thebes What these tell 15 rather of Lgypt’s history than the world’s, the 1dea that Hehopolis suggests 14 the true progress of the whol human race For here was the oldest link in the chain of the schools of learmug The conqueror has demolished the teinple, the city, with the houses of the wise men, has fallen into hopeless 1uin, downtiodden by the thoughtless peasant, as he drives his plough acioss the site) Let the name and the fame of the City of the Sun chums the stranger as of old while, standing beside the ob: lish, he looks bach through the long and stately avenue of the ages that are past, and measures the ga 1D knowledge that patient scnolary have won.” 1

The erection of this obelisk probably synchronises with the building of the famous Temple of the Sun, of which it was doubtless one of the chief ornaments. Recent dis- coveries have enabled Egyptologists to assign the date of the foundation of the temple to the third year of the reign of Usertsen I., a king of the twelfth dynasty. This fact was established by Doctor Brugsch, in 1858, who dis- covered at Thebes a leather roll (now in the Berlin Museum) which gives an account of the founding of the temple.

Gt one need not be an antiquarian or student of ancient history to appreciate the extraordinary interest of this grand relic of an ancient civilisation. The least imagine-

t §. Lane-Poole, ‘Cities of Egypt.”

THE CITY OF THE SUN. 229

tive of visitors can scarcely help being impressed at the sight of a monument which there is every reason to sup- pose Moses must often have looked upon, when a student at this ancient seat of learning. Then this obelisk must have been standing for over seven hundred years when Pharaoh gave Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, the high- priest of the Temple of the Sun, to the Patriarch Joseph.

The sun is the most ancient object of Egyptian worship found upon the monuments. His birth each day, when he spungs from the bosom of the nocturnal heavens, 1s the nitural emblem of the eternal generation of the divinity. The rays of the sun, as they awaken all nature, seemed to the ancients to give life to animated beings. Hence that Which doubtless was originally a symbol became the founda- tion of the religion. 1t 15 the Sun (Ra) himself whom we find habitually invoked as the Supreme being.

According to many scholars who have given special attention to that branch of Egyptology which concerns it- self with the religion and mythology ot the ancient Egyp- tians, notably Doctor Brugsch, the worship of Apis was not erude idolatry like the totem-worship of the North Amer- ican Indians, but mere symbolism. According to these exponents of the Egyptian pantheon, the ancient Egyp- tians were virtually monotheists, who recognised in Ra the supreme solar deity, while the minor deities were mere personifications of his divine attmbutes. Knum, for instance, represented his creative properties; Thoth, his wisdom; Anubis, his swiftness; while the bull, Apis, typi- fied his strength. This view is certainly the most popular one, though many authorities are not prepared to admit that the Egyptians, though avowedly the most wonderful people of antiquity, had, at all events so early as the first dynasty, reached such a high spiritual standard as mono- theism implies.

Perhaps, however, we shall find the true solution of the

230 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

problem in a modified monotheism, as Miss A. B. Edwards suggests in the following jnstructive passage :

“Their monotheism was not exactly our monotheism ıt was a monotheism based upon, and evolved from, the polytheism of ear- her ages Could we question a high-pnest of the nineteenth or twentieth dynasties on the subject of his faith, we should be startled by the breadth and grandeur of his views touching the Godhead He would tell us that the god Ra was the Great All, that by his word alone he called all things into existence, that all things are therefore but reflections of himself and Ins will, that he 1s the creator of day and night, of the heavenly spheres, of intinite space, that he 14, in short, the eternal essence, mvisible, omnipresent, and omniscient If, after this, we contd put the same questions to a high-priest of Memphis, we should 1¢ceive a very similai answer, only we should now be told this great divinity was Ptah, and if we could make the tom of Lyypt, questiomng the pricsts of every great temple in turn, we should find that cach Claimed these atti butes of unify and universality for his own loeu god Al, never theless, would admit the adentily of these various deities They would admit that he whom they worshipped at Hehopolis as Ra

was the same as the god worshipped at Memphis as Ptah, and at Thebes as Amen ”

Heliopolis, during the middle empire, was the chief seat of learning in Egypt; and the sacred college, attached to the Temple of the Sun, was the forerunner of all European universities. Thales, Solon, Pythagoras, and even Plato are among the famous scholars who are said to have studied at this ancient university. Then, to go back to a remoter period, it was at Heliopolis that Moses was Instructed “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”

Its fame was, however, dimmed by the rise of Alexan- dria, and the transfer of its hbrary to the new metropolis of Mgypt, by Ptolemy I., proved its death-blow.

Manetho (who might be called the Gibbon of Ancient Egypt), whose records are the chief source from which all modern historians and Egyptologists derive their chronol-

THE CITY OF THE SUN 281

ogy, was the keeper of the archıves of the Great Temple in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus Hw actual history has never been found, and all we know of this invaluable work of reference 18 from a few quotations in Josephus and othe: chroniclers Still, as Miss Edwards observes, there 1s no rcason why some fortunate explorer should not yet {find a copy of the lost history of Manetho im the tomb of some long forgotten scribe, just as many transcripts of Homer have becn found Hehopolis may be considered the mothcr-city of Baalbec, 1 ording to some historians, the Assyrien “ City of th sun” was founded by a colony of priests wh> migrated f m Hehopohs The moignificcnt ruins of this sccond Heliopolis, whose outer walls wore composed of huge | chs hudly excclicd in size by those uscd for building the temples of Rimeses the Gaicat, will zive some indicatjon t the architectural splendour of the I zyptian capital, as the latte: was not hkely to be cxceedcd in magnificence by the daughter city According to 1¢eccnt mc asurcmcnts, the lugcst of these blocks 18 sixty four tect long, fourteen feet wide, and fourteen feet thick It ıs an interesting fact, but one which seems to have éscaped the notice of the writers of popular tert-books on Fyyptian history, that the famous Rosett: stonc was origi- nilly one of the inscriptions which covered the walls of the lemple of the Sun An account of its discovery will be found in another chapter The legendary phoenix 1s familiar to every one 1n its pro \crbial application, and it was from Hchopolis that the myth of this fabled bird, sacred to Osiris, originated It was said to visit the Temple of the Sun every five hundred years, and set fire to iteelf, fanning the flames with its wings, from whose ashes sprang a new phoenis Many of the early Fathers — Cyril, Clement, Tertulhan, among others—so firmly believed in the story of the

232 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

pheenix, that they did not hesitate to biing 1t forward sen- ously as a proof of the resurrection Even ın the present day, believers in the truth of this fable are to be found, and, as recently as 1840, a ccrtaim fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, published a long pamphlet in favour of the exist- ence of this lcgendary bird The most plausible theory of the ongin of the myth 1s that 1t was a symbolic representa tion of the aneicnt astronomcrs to denote the recurrence of an astronomicil period marked by the heliacal msimg of some pominent constellation

The villayı: of Maituch is usually included in the excut sion to Hchopohs It 15 httle more than a mle distant, and those go by 101d will pass it on their wiy to the City of the Sun According to the etymology of the vil lage (“place belonunyg to the Sun), 1t must orginally have bicn an outlying portion of Heliopolis and the famous well was in tact the Fountain of the Sun’ Lhe excu sion trom ( mo 15 puticul uly plersant thc road being bor dered with tamitishs, pilms ind sycamoies ‘The village of Matarih is charmingly situitcd, and from the number of palaces in its envions belonging to various members of the Khedivial family, it mizht well be termed a village of palac cs

The chief interest to visitors lies in the famous Virgin’s Tiree and Virgins Wcll Undcr this holy tree the Virgin and Child arc said to have rested afte: their flight into Egypt The tice 1s a mignificcnt old sycamore, — not, however, the kind of sycamore with which we are familiar, which belongs to the maple family, but a kind of fig It need scarcely be said that the tree now seen 1s not the veri- table tree of the legend, ın fact, even the guides do not dare to asert ths The trec 1s probably not more than three hundred years old There 1s, however, httle doubt but that 1¢ 18 planted on the site of an older tree, to which the same tradition attaches, and, mdeed, there is nothing to prevent

THE CITY OF THE SUN. £88

the present tree having been produced from ao saplitg of a tree which, in its turn, sprang from the original tree. Many curious Coptic legcnds cluster round this venerable tree. According to some chroniclers, the Virgin Mary hid herself from the soldicrs of Herod among the branches, and a spider, by spinning a web, effectually screened her hiding- place These legends are a curious ilustiation of the pro- verhial repetition of history, o: rather historical tradition, ind recall to us the stories of Charles 11 and the Boscobel vak, and Robert Bruce and the spider The tree has been much hacked sabout by relic-hunting trasellcis, and the present proprietor, a Copt, with a sarcasti appreciation of the mstincts of vandalism which seems to prompt latter-day tuurists, has considerately plantcd anothe: sycamore close by, from which pieces can be cut instead of from the ong- nil, a kmte being chained to the tree for the purpose '

lhe late Khedive Ismail made a present of this tree to lus guest, the e.-Empress Eug¢nie, in 1869 The gift was “iaciously accepted, but the emprcss’s good taste pic vented her taking any steps for the 1emoval of this precious relic. Possibly, too, she was aware of Ismail’s practice of making presents of antiquities — obelishs tor mstance — which were quite opposed to the wishes of the natives, or regarded the vffe. as an Onental form of politeness never intended to be taken seriously, just as a modern Spanish grandee will not fail to tell a guest who incautiounly admires any possession of his host, “ Esta muy a la disposicion de Usted” (“It is yours”). This fictitious hind of hospitality is, perhaps, a traditionary habit bequeathed to Spaniards by their Sara- cenic conquerors.

The Virgin’s Well is close by; and round this spot, also, have e&ntred many early Christian legends. It has earned peculiar sanctity as the well ia which the Holy Child was bathed. The fact that the wager is fresh, being fed from springs, while that of most wells in the Delta is either salk

234 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

or brackish, has naturally given colour to this tradition. According to the Coptic legend, the water was salt until the Virgin bathed her child in 1t.

The balsam shrub, the Balm of Gilead of the Bible, for- merly grew here in profusion. The Coptic tradition is that the shrubs sprang fiom the drops of water which fell from the swaddling-clothes of the mtant Jesus, which had been washed in the well They were biought from Judea to this spot by Cleopatra, who, trusting to the influence of Maik Antony, removed them, m spitc of the opposition of Herod, as they had been Intherto confincd to Judæa. Josephus tells us that the land wheic the balsam-tree grew belonged to Cleopatia, and that “ Herod farmed of her what she pos- sessed in Arabia, and those revenues that came to her from the regions about Jericho, bearne the balsam, the most precious ot drugs, which grows there alone” The plants were in later times taken fiom Maitarich to Arabia, and grown near Mecca, whence thi balsam is now brought to Egypt and Europe, under the name of Balsam of Mecca, and the gardens of Hehopolis no longcr produce this valu- able plant A still more profitable article ot commerce one of the most lucrative in Egypt, — namely, the cotton- plant, —1s due to some experiments in the culture of this plant at Matarich in 1820.

CHAPTER XIX MINOR EXCURSIONS

T w not altogether surprising that the list of minor

éxcursions in the naghbourhood ot Carno re commended tu the standasd gundc-boohs, ind known to the local diag onins and guides, should be such a magic one The unt nt monuments of Ghizch, Memphis, Heliopolis, etc, to say nothing of the important specimens of Saracenic uchituctme with wlich Cano abounds, are so numerous ind engrossing that few tomists can spare tinu for ordi- nny dnyes and expeditions, and consequently Murray and Bacdeker are content with a bruf notice of only a tew (ausins m the neighbourhood Thosc, however, who ae making Cano thur headquarters tor the winter would lind many objects of interest to occupy their time after txhausting the regulation sights, and, indeed, to know ( uro properly means more than a winter’s study To the artist Cairo offers an illimitable ficld, and one which ls, to a great extent, a vigin one Outside certain hack- nejed poimts of view ın the favourite hazaar quarter, and m the neighbourhood of the tombs of the Caliphs and Mamelukes, where one 1s constantly meeting artists of all kinds and degrees attempting to assimilate local colour and atmosphere, the artistic side of Cairo seems a good deal neglected Those familiar with picture exhibitions know only too well the mosque interiors and scenes of Cairo street-life which, in the opinion of most amateurs, sum up the artistic possibilities of the City of the Caliphs.

It 1s painful to see the absence of originality or freshness 235

236 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

of invention, or any aptitude for the selection of a really striking or novel pomt of view among these innumerable artists of the “tca-tray schoul,’ who have eyes only for the conventional picturesque

It 18 curious, too, that Cairo, with its undeniable wealth of subjects, docs not seem ever to have been made a field of study by an artist of renown, as 18 the case with Flor- ence, Venicc, Romc, Gianada, Athens, Constantinople, and othe: famous cits of Emope Yt what a magnificent opportunity, for istanc, the port of Boulag, as little known to the utist as to thc ordmary tourist, offers te a “golourst’ like Clira Montilba o: Henrictta Rae, with its pictuics of native hfe, its varicty of form and colour!

Strangers probably do not rciise that Cairo has an importint trading port it its thicshold, and no diragoman would dicam of sugecstins thit the quiys of Boulag might be includcd m the travellers daily round of sight seeing

Itis 2 particularly lively secne, this Cmporium of all the commerce of Uppa Egypt and Nuha An cndless succes- sion of all kinds of vessels linc the shore,— trading daha- Inyehs, cangvs, stuamers, rafts, transports, yachts, and, since the enterprise of Messis Tage & Co, the famous Thames boat-builders, cven steam launches and 1owing-boats The most curious of all the crafts are the rafts composed of jars from Kench, which may be scen here discharging thur caigo Montbaid’s livcly description givcs a good idea of what the traveller may sce, though, of course, since the closmg of the Soudan to traders, the trading-vessels with cargoes from khartoum and from Southein Nubia are no lqpger to be seen

‘ From the South come the vessels from Assouan loaded with senna, gathered in the desert by the warlike Abadiechs, elephants’ tusks, rhinoceros horns, and antelopes’ horns from Darfour, skins of jaguars, zebras, and giraffes from Khartoum Dahabiyehs with

MINOR EXCURSIONS. 287

elevated poops advance, they hail fiom Esneh, with ivory, ostrich featheis, gum, nitre, etc., transported across the desert from Abys- sinia, coffee and incense from Arabia; spice, pearls, precious stones, cashmeres, and silk froin India, arriving by the deserts of Kosheir Ldfu sends its pipes, its charming vasea um red add blach clay, elo- gnt in form, with gracefully modelled ornaments, and there are heavy barges from Fayoum the land of roses, filled to the top with rye barley, cotton, digo, dahabiyehs full of carpeta, woollen atuffs, tlagons of rose-water, mats made with the reeds of Birket-el-Keroun.”

An additional picturesque touch is given by the netting with which the precious freights are usually covered, in- stad of the eommonplace and ugly tarpaulin which we uc familiar with in Western ports. This netting is, how- «ver, more for the purpose of keeping the cargo together than to protect it from the clements. ,

We will now describe the more conventional excursions in the environs of Cairo. Uelouan and the ancient quar- is Of Turra make a pleasant morning’s or afternoon’s e\peditiun. The modern town of Helouan, on the strength of a few palm-trees surrounding the modern bathing-estab- lishment, has been grandiloquently termed an oasis in the desert. Tt is about two miles from the dirty native village of the same name situated on the Nile. There is not much to see here except the bathing establishment and the Khedivial palace.

Qf all his numerous palaces,— and the Khedive of Nig} pt seems to possess as many royal residences as King Humbert of Italy, — Helouan was the favourite one of the late Khedive Tewfik. 1t was here that this sovereign died, and, in consequence, it has long remained empty; for a foolish superstition — prevalent in all Mohammedan coun- tries — makes even the present Khedive, in spite of his European training, disinclined to live in a palace where one of his relatives has died. This prejudice, no doubt, accounts for the palace of Ghizeh being turned into a national museum, and Ghezireh Palace into a fashionable

238 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

hotel. Probably this 1s the destiny which awaits the palace of Helouan, for Helouan, now that its bathing establish ment has been contiolled by a German syndicate, and 1un on the lines of a Continental kursal, 1s beginning to be frequented a good deal by Europeans A gieat variety of watcis are to be found here, — sulphur, saline, and 110n, but the principal springs, and those which give Hclouan its thief razson d’etre, are the sulphur springs, which aie similar to those of Aix, les Buns The claims made for Hclouan, as the most ancicnt hcalth-resort and medicinal baths in the whole world, aie probably justified There can be little doubt thit thes: are the sulphur baths near the quarrics on the (cistern side of the Nilc, to which, on the authority of, Manctho, the Ptolemaic historian, King Amen hetep, scnt “the leprous ind other curcless persons, in order to separate them from the rest of the Egyptians ” Though Helouan contains littl of interest, 1t 18 a con- venicnt starting point for 1 trip to thc ancicnt quarries of Turra These quirncs supplied much of the stone for the Pyramids Toitunatly, the modern quarrying 18 of the surface rock for thc most part, so that visitors can sce the vast caverns cxcavated by the Pharaohs, in order to get the ficsh stone, almost as they were when the Pha- raonic labourers excavated them Mcdizval historians, misled by the simiazity of the ancient name Ta-ro-fu, did not hesitate to call it Troja, and as a plausible preteat declared that ıt was so called because the captive Trojans, who were said to have followed king Menelaus to Egypt, had a settlement here It 1s curious how many myths, gravely set down as authentic history by Diodorus, Strabo, rodotus, and other great writers, are due to errors 10 mology. Some stele found here, of the sixteenth dy- nasty, conclusively prove that the Turra hills were used as quarries by several kings of that early period. A local guide might better be taken, for the Caro guides are not

MINOR EXCURSIONS. 239

hkely to know the way among the ancient galleries and cuttings.

These quarries are probably the oldest in the world, older even than those of Assouan. Many are still in um, and it 18 curious to think that the streets of the modcrn city of Cairo are paved with flags of the same magnesiuin lm stone that the Egyptian masons used for hailding the temples of Memphis over four thousand years ago,

The ancient method of quarrying is so well described in Murray’s Handbook, that ıt 1» worth quoting in full:

i hey first began by cutting u trench or groove round a square sace m the smooth perpendicular face of the roch, and having pered a horizontal tunned a cert uu dister, D cutting away the centre of the square, they made a succession of similar tunnels on the sume level, atter which they extended th® work downwards 1 (ve form of steps, removing tach tur of stone as they went on, till they reached the lowest part or intended floor of the quarry. Some- tuas they began by an oblong tunnel, which they cut downwards to the depth of one stone’s length. ind they then continued horizon- tally in steps, each of these forming as usual a standing-place, while they cut away the row above at aA similar process was adopted on the opposite side of the quarty, til at length two perpendicular valls were kft, which constituted its extent, and here again new openings were made, and another chamber connected with the first one was formed in the same manner, pillars of rock being left here ind there to support the root These communications of one quarry or chamber of a quarry with the other are frequently observable in the mountains of Masara, where they follow in uninterrupted suc- cession for a considerable distance, and in no part of Egypt 18 the nu thod of quarrying more clearlv shown. The lines traced on the roof, marking the size and divisi 1 of each set of blocks, were prob- ably intended to show the number hewn by particular workmen.”

The quarries also served as a field of labour for prisoners of war and criminals, and were, in short, the Portland or Dartmoor of the ancient Egyptians. This is thought to be indicated by certain marks on the walls of the galleries, which are supposed to mark the progress of the work of the prisoners.

240 THE GfTY OF THE CALIPHS.

These quarries offor an admirable field of study for the geologist, as fossils of all kind are plentiful. The ethno- graphical student will also be interested in the remarkable specimens of flint implements — relics of the Stone Age — which are occasionally found in the desert, between Helouan and the (Gebel Mokattam These so-called pre historic relics do not, however, point to such an extreme antiquity as 1s usually attmbuted to implements of the Stone Age, for ıt ıs well known to scholars that the Egyptians used these kinds of implements as recently as the twentieth dj nasty

The Petiified Forest, pace Bacdeker, who declares that it 18 one of the sights of Egypt which every traveller makes a point of visiting, 1s of sheht mtcrcst to most tourists, unless they are gcologists It 1s, howcver, an expedition which should nog be omitted h} strangas, for though there 1s little to sce at the forcst itsclt but a few fossilised trunks, the mde on donkcy-bick makes a pleasant little desert expedition, aud the route acioss a spur of the Mokattam mountains affords maznificent vicws of Caio, better even than those obtaind from the Citadel, and at sunset the atmospheric eftects of the desert are superb. It ıs possible to drive, for the rough tiack, which the guide-book dign! fies by the name of road, 1s practicable for wheeled vehicles. but this mode of locomotion will not be found at all satis factary, and ıt ıs far preferable, even for ladies, to make ‘the 4nip in the orthodos way, on donkeys. A guide 18 quite unnecessary, a8 every donkey-boy knows the way. Donkey boys, it may be observed, ıs a conventional term, the boys being often married men of thirty or forty years of age, ha the post-boys of the old coaching-days.

he journey there and back can be comfortably man- aged in a morning or afternoon, though the guides will naturally ingist that it is a whole day’sexcurmon. For the Great Petrified Forest, some half-dozen miles farther, 4

MINOR EXCURSIONS. 241

whole day should be allowed ; but the ride is tedious, and a little too tiring for all but the most robust. If ladies attempt it, they should be careful to see that their mount has a well-fitting saddle.

To resume our itinerary of the Small Forest excursion, a halt ‘s usually made at the so-called Moses’s Well. It need scarcely be said that this spring has not even the slightest legendary association with Moses, but the \iabs are fond of naming geographical features after famous biblical chatacters. This spring is in a gorge of one of the Mokattam hills, and the Petrified Forest can he soon reached hy active pedestrians, by climbing the aest of the mountain. The mounted members of the party must, however, return to the mouth of the ravine, and follow the path which winds round the spur of the hill, when the Forest will be reached in about half an hour. The remains of the fossil trees strew the plateau lor several miles. lt is a moot point with geologists whether the trees are indigenous, or whether they were floated by water and became embedded in the ground, being converted in the course of many thousands of years into stone. Professor Fraas, a German geologist of note, con- siders that these trees are of a totally different family to that of the palm, to which they are usually attributed by the guides, who are, of course, as ignorant of the elements of geology as the ordinary Nile dragoman is of archwology. In his opinion, the trees are a kind of balsam, and he offers the following theory of their origin: when the sandstone be- came disintegrated, and in course of time was converted into the sand of the desert, then the silicised trunks were gradu- ally disengaged from their sandstone bed, and they now cover the surface of the Little Khashab for a distance of ten to fifteen miles. Travellers who are not familiar with the appearance of a vein of coal will be greatly struck by the appearance of this formation, regarding which all kinds of

242 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS,

fanciful theories have been set up. The geologist, how- ever, will simply regard 1t as akin to the coal-measures of the Meiocene period, with this difference, — that while the waters of Europe tavoured the preservation of the carbon and the fibre of the wood, the silicious sandstone of thc Mokattam convcrtcd the tissue of the wood mto shuc acid Specimens of simlar fossilis: d trecs are also seen in the desert beyond thc Pyramids of Ghizeh, but these arc rarely visited.

A chaiming cxcursion 1s the one to the Ostrmch Farm, near Matarieh. The route 1s past Shubra, the suburb of palaces, and round by Hcliopolis and Matarich The faim 1s run by an entuiprising Ficnchman Though the dy and warm climate of Egypt 1s particularly well adapted for the breeding of ostiichcs, the expcruncnt here does not seem to have proved a great commercial success Eggs can be bought as mementocs of the visit They are not pitted lhe those of the South Afiicin ostriches, but are quite smooth

Perhaps the most intcresting of all the excursions ncar Cairo is the one to the Barrage This huge structure, which 1s so striking a feature in the landscape ın the railway journcy from Alexandria to Cauo, requires to be noticed at some length

The Banage, as it now stands—remodelled, restored, and thoroughly seiviceable—is an excellent illustration of the excellent work cariicd out within recent years by the Public Works Department in the irmgation of Egypt All efforts to ameliorate the condition of life among the fellaheen are summed up in a thorough system of irmga- tion. In Egypt, deed, so far as practical benefit to the community 1s concerned, wnmgation and drainage are of

ual importance with improvements ın means of locomo- tion m other countries, — railways, bridges, roads, and other renumerative public works.

Egypt is destined by nature to be the granary of Europe,

MINOR EXCURSIONS. 248

and its natural riches consist in agricultural products. One can hardly thus exaggerate the importance of develop- ing the resources of its soil. In Egypt, indeed, the saying that the true benefactor is one who makes two blades of grass grow where formerly only one grew, seems especially applicable. We may even say that the one great apology for the English occupation of the country is the way in which Egypt’s natural resources have been developed by the Public Works Department, the ereation cf the English.

That “ Egypt is the gift of the Nile” —a maxim which has been repeated with “damnable reiteratien’’ by almost every writer on Egypt since Herudotus—is no mere phrase, and its truth seems to have been recognised in the carhest age of Egyptian mythology, when the Nile was worshipped as the Creative Principle. Yet Mehemet Ali tailed to appreciate properly the fact that the Nile is all in all to the Egyptian, and that the genius of the country ıs embodicd in agriculture and not in manufactures ; and that by concentrating his energies to fostering manu- factures, for which the fellahs are naturally unfitted, he did as much to exhaust the national vitality as in attempting to realise his dreams of foreign conquest and his romantic ambition of regenerating the decaying Otto- man Empire. Under Mehemet, the peasants were torn away from their fields to serve in the Pacha’s armies, or to work in his sugar and cotton factories; and Egypt was both a vast camp and a great factory, and its energies were strained almost to the breaking point. Even the climatic conditions of Egypt are opposed to the successful conduct of textile manufactures. The excessive heat is said to be injurious to the material, and the fine sand which .is blown about by every breeze is destructive to the machinery. Notwithstanding, then, the low cost of labour, the Egyp- tians can be undersold by foreigners in cotton and linen stuffs. Besides, the cultivable soil of Egypt, which, by

244 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

every canon of political economy, should first be attended to, requires as much native labour as the population can afford At present it has been calculated that there 1s only one able-bodied fellah to every thiee acres of arable land These observations maj perhaps help the visitor to realisc the sigmificance of ths magnificent monument of engineering enterprisc known as the Burage, which, by most travellers, 1s meicly looked upon 13 9 plcasaut goal for a picnic, or, at best, as an oljectof for an off day 5 excursion

The object of this huse dium —the largcst wen outside India and the Umitd Statcs in the world—is to serve as a rescrvoir at low Nile, to muintim the river at the level of thc banks and supply Lowa: Lzypt with the same amount of water as it the poriod of Inzh Nile In theory the conception was 1 mand one, and some cicdit should be given to Mechemct Ali, who fist siw the poss bility of binging an enormous uea of the Delt. under cultivation, which hitherto, tor want of an} means of miigation, was absolutcly unproductive Unfortunatly the orginal en gineers seem to have bungled and did not make the foundations stiong cnou_h ‘The faulty foundations were due to haste, and to lack of efficicnt supervision over the thousands of ignorant fcllihs impressed to: the service The engineers, under pressure from Mehemct, insisted 02 the foundations of the piers being completed during one low Nile period The materials were not properly mized, so that instead of a solid and cohesive base of concrete, the piers were built on a mass of loose rubble of sand and lime This is scarcely to be wondered at, as ove: four thousand tons of concrete had to be mixed every day

hus an admirably conceived undertaking was wrecked at

e outset by puerile haste and deficient control over the army of labourers, amounting to over eighty thousand In consequence of this “scamped” workmanship, from 116 completion in 1867 till 1885, when Sir Colin Scott-Mon-

MINOR EXCURSIONS. 945

crieff, the head of the Public Works Department, under- took the task of restoring it, this huge double dam, with its elaborate system of lock gates, sluices, etc., was regarded as a kind of white elephant by the Egyptian Government The Barrage consists of a double bridge or lock, each spanning one of the two branches of the Nile, the Rosetta and Damietta, at the point where they unite. The dam is on an enormous scale, and is strongly fortified. In fact, the Barrage was not merely a dam, but a bridge, a iort, and a barracks. At a distance it bears a striking resem- nlinee to a couple of railway viaducts connected by a fort. Abbas Pacha attempted to carry on this gigantic wurk, whieh had already swallowed up so many million piastres. A highly characteristic story of this worthless ruler, in ‘onnection with the Barrage, was told by one of the French engineers. It had struck the Pacha as a peculiarly happy thought to use the stones of the Pyramid» for rebuilding it. “You see the Pyramids standing there uscless: why not tike the stones from them to do the work? They have already helped to build Cairo.” The engineer, who was aghast at the suggestion, but carcful to conceal his senti- ments, retired from the presence, feeling that he was very awkwardly situated. To retuse to obey the Pacha was Impossible, while if he consented to the destruction of these great historic monuments, his name would go down to posterity stamped with infamy as the destroyer of the Pyramids. However, a bright idea struck him. He would appeal to the well-known avarice of the Pacha. He there- fore filled several sheets of paper with long columns of figures and imaginary calculations, which he brought to the Viceroy at his next audience as a rough estimate of the cost. Abbas, who, of course, could make nothing of the figures, though evidently impressed by them, insisted on having a verbal estimate. The engineer took care to make it a high one, and the Viceroy finally abandoned the project.

246 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

The Barrage, like the Suez Canal, was an undertaking which, doubtless, Napoleon would have carried out, had his scheme of conquering Egypt succeeded. Then Mehemet began it, and it was abandoned by Said Pacha. Abbas spent considerable sums in futile tinkering of the work. In 1885, Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff, and his staff of engi- neers, found that the arches of the Damietta branch were badly cracked, and that the whole structure was faultily built; and though an English board of engineers had declared that to rebuild the Barrage and make it of any practical use £1,200,000 would be required, Sir Colin, after six years’ continuous labour, succeeded in making the weir thoroughly serviceable at an expenditure of little more than a third of the estimate of the English experts. The ultimate gain to Egypt is almost incalculable. Already the export of cotton from the Delta, since the completion of the Barrage, has averaged in one year more than twice the cost of the six-years work of rebuilding it.

The Barrage is, however, only one of the great works in connection with the elaborate system of irrigation on which as much as cighty thousand pounds was spent in 1896. A project closely connected with the Barrage of the Delta is a huge dam, which is to be constructed at Assouan, and which will do for Upper Egypt what the former has done for the Delta.

Drainage is another public work of almost equal import- ance to that of regulating and utilising the flood-waters of the Nile. One of the most important drainage-works re- cently accomplished was the pumping out of Lake Mareotis, near Alexandria, in 1896. It is particularly fitting that the reclamation of this submerged land should be undertaken

English engineers, since the English troops, when occupy- ing Alexandria in the early part of the century, wantonly cut through the narrow ridge which separated the sea from the lake, — at that time dry land.

MINOR EXCURSIONS 247

Over half a million has been spent on drainage in Egypt, but, as Lord Cromer writes, in his last Annual Report (1890), ““1t may safcly be asserted that funds could hardly ht apphed to a more necessary work o1 to one which would bing in a quicker return on tht captal expended In Frypt exhausted soil recovers ita productive power vary ryidly Whenever i dian is dug, the benc fit « vused 1s yud ly apparent in the shape of increased pro tuc ”

The prevalling impression amoug visitors 18 that the urizition is ¢ffeckd solcly Ly the matural sulmeision of th Jind by the mundation Ihis 1s only vthered to m Nubia and U ppar Typt In the Delta, the floo las diverted nto a network of canis, which imntciscet the Delta in all Lie tions, giving it the striking yppearance of a vast chess lar]

Lowa Egypt produces three crops The winter crop

usists of cereals of ul kinds Itis sown ın November, and harvested ın May or June Cotton, sugar, and rice irc the principal summcr crops "They aie sown in March, inl sithered in Octobe: and November Finally, there are th autumn crops, met, muze, and vegetables, sown In July and gathered in Sc ptember and Octobe: In Upper l xpt, where at present the inhabitants have to depend cn the annual flood alonc, thcre are only two harvests in the year, and the principil crop 18 the winter one of wheat, beans, or clover, gathcicd in May or June

In order to complete nur survey of the minor sights and excursions, some mention must be made of the various palaces belonging to members of th Khedivial family, which abound both in Cairo itself and the beautiful suburb of Ghezireh and Shubra As 18 only natural in a city which 18 on the threshold of the grandest monuments of antiquity, royal palaces and other modern buildings —for the oldest of these are the work of Mehemet Als archi- tects — receive but scant attention at the hands of tourists;

248 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

bat to those sated with the magnificent relics of the oldest ‘civilisation in the world, a morning devoted to visiting some of these royal residences and their beautiful gardens would afford a pleasing contrast. It must be remembered, however, that only a few can be seen by visitors, without special permission. Among these Mehemet Ali’s palace at Shubra (now the residence of Prince Hasan, the uncle of the present Khedive) and the Ghezirch Palace are must interesting. The chief attraction of Prince Hasan’s pal- ace is the magnificent fountain and artificial lake, sur- rounded by kiosque, terraces, and hanging gardens, which are quite a triumph of landscape gardening. From a ki- osque which crowns this series of terraces there is a charm- ing view of the Nile.

The Ghezireh Palace is the largest of all the Cairo palaces. It was here that Ismail lodged his illustrious guest, the Empress Eugénie, in 1869. Though now con- verted into a fashionable hotel, the Oriental character of the building and its decoration have been scrupulously retained, and perhaps no Oriental city west of India can show such a superb specimen of modern domestic archi- tecture as this admirably restored palace. Ghezireh, for though this is a generic term meaning island, — the official designation Ghezireh Boulag being seldom used,— is the island, and serves also as the Hyde Park and Hurlingham of Cairo, as well as the great focus and rallying-point of the European world of fashion. It has quite replaced the Shubra Avenue, once the fashionable drive; and the Ezbe- kiya Gardens, given up now-a-days mainly to Cairene tradespeople, nursery-maids of the European community, and English privates, might be called the Kensington Gar- Ags of Cairo.

The palaces above mentioned, together with the Citadel, the Tombs of the Caliphs, and the Gebel Mokattam, gon- stitute the finest points of view in Cairo.

CHAPTER XX. THF NILE AS A HFAL14 - RESORT. !

It flows thiough old hushed Egypt and its sands

Like some grave, mighty thou,ht the sding a dream, And time and things, as 1n that vision, seem

Keteg ng along it then eternal standa

Cayos pillars, pyramids the shephcad bands

ihat roamed through the young world, th: glory extreme Of high Sesostris, aud that Southern beam,

The laughing queen, thit caught the wild s great hands Phen comes a im htier silence, suan and strong,

As of a world le ft empty of its throng,

And the void weighs on us and then we wake,

And hear the fruitful stream Jipsing along

’Pwixt villages, and think how we shall take

Ow own calm journey on for human sake

Luien HUNT

ANY Englısh people, who are accustomed to spend the winter ın one of the relatively cheap towns of the twu Riviéras, are often deterred from wintering in the undeniably superior climate of Egypt by the expense of the journey and the hich cost of hving in Cairo. The City of the Caliphs 1s, no doubt, one of the most expensive health-regorts in the world, not only owing to the high charges of its splendidly equipped hotels, but to its great vogue as a fashionable cosmopolitan winter city. People are, however, beginning to realise that Cairo is not nec- easarily Egypt; and, indeed, as a health-resort pure and simple, it is, as we have shown in a previous chapter, by no means to be unreservedly recommended.

1 From an article contributed to the Westminster Review, 1807. 249

250 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

Egypt, however, offers a choice of some four or five health-resorts besides Cairo, namely, Helouan, Mena House (Pyramids), Luxor, Assouan, and the Nile As for As souan, it should, perhaps, be regarded, in spite of its res dent doctor and chaplain and cood hotel accommodation, as a potential, 1athcı than an actual, chm itic health station Helouan is dull and dı picosing, and, in spite of its golf links, lacking ın resources and attractions Then the Teutonic clement 15 rather too much in evidence at this sanatorium Mcna House, at the Pyramids, 1s undeniably expensive, and the fishionable socicty clument too obtru sive to make it a desirabl winter quarters tor the invalid

The Nile as a health 1csort suffers fiom none of these drawbacks, ind the climite of the Upper Nile and Nubia is undemably superior to thit of Lower Egypt

The fullest bencfit from the Fzyptian clim ite 1s gained from a prolonged Nile voyage, while the asepticity — word beloved by the faculty —of the atmosphcie 1s greater than at Luxor, where the hotils uc terribly overcrowded ım the height of the season ‘Then the Nile itself 1s more equable in temperature than its binks On the other hand, invalid passengers on these miniiturc pleasure-barz7s — for one 18 bound to admit that thc linc» of the dahabiych approal mate mole nearly to thosc of 1 Thames house-boat than to a yacht — are not well protected from cold winds, which makes some physicians look askance on dahabiyeh tips for persons with delicate lungs Besides, though the actual ex tremes of temperature are actually less on the mvers than in the desert, the difference 1s felt more by patients than when protected by the thick walls of a hotel It 18 cul ous, too, that the cold at might seems to increase the

rther one goes south These constitute the only real drawbacks to dahabiyehs for delicate persons

Formerly, the only orthodox way of doing the Nile voy- age was by means of these native sailing-boats, universally

THE NILE AS A HEALTH - RESORT 251

known as dahabiyehs, and the costliness of this means of locomotion practically confined it to the English milord Of late zeas, however, the wholesome competition of the groat tourist-agencies has brought about a general reduc tion in the rents of these pleasure-craft With a party of four or fivc, the inclusive cost of the two munths’ voyage to Assonin and back necd not cxcecd £110 to £120 per head, — granting, of course, that the org user of the trip hnows thc river, has had some «xpcrience ot Nile travel, has a nodding acquuntance with Arabie, and 18 able to hole Ins own with his dragoman

For the health sccker as well as the mere huliday-maker, the dihtbiych voy ge 1s ccrtunly the ical method of sponding a winter in Egypt In short, this form of the new yachting is to thc valid what the pleasure yacht- nz Cruse — the latest development of cooperative travel

13 to the ordinary tout Though independcnt, the trivclle: 1s not isolated, and can always get in touch with avilisvtion as represented by the tourist steamers and mul boats, which virtually pitiol the Nile from Cairo to Wady Halfa Then he 15 nevcr morc than a few hours’ sal from a railway stition, —- the lime for the greater part fits length running along the Nile banks, and almost (very station 1s a telegraph ofhce as well English doctors ind chaplains are to be found throughout the season at the chief goals of the voyage, Luxor and Assouan , while, ın cascs of emergency, the services of the medical men attached to the tourist steamers are available The voy- ige 18 eminently restful, without being dull or monotonous In fact, the Nile bemg the great highway of traffic for Nubia and Upper Egypt to Cairo and Alexandria, there 18 constant variety, and the river traffic affords plenty of hfe and movement One constantly passes the pictur- esque trading-dahabiyehs ghding along with their enormous lateen sails, the artistic effect being heightened by contrast

252 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS,

>

with a trim, modern steam-dahabiyeh, as incongruous a: craft as a gondola turned into a steam-launch, and utterly opposed to the traditions of Nile travel, — too reminiscent, perhaps, of Cookham Reach or Henley. The banks of the river, quite apart from the temples and monuments of antiquity, are also full of interest for the observant voyager, who may congratulate himself on the superiority of his lot to his less fortunate invalid brethren winter- ing on the Riviéra, “killing time till time kills them,” — chained for the greater part of the day, perhaps, to the hotel balcony or Villa Garden at Mentone, Monte Carlo, or San Remo.

Delightful “ bits” for the sketch-book are constantly to be met with. At almost every village, and many are passed in a day’s sail,— native women may be seen filling their earthen jars with water, and carrying them on their heads with all the grace and poctry of motion of a Ca- priote girl. Jabbering gamins are driving down the banks the curious little buffaloes to water. Every now and then we pass a shadoof tended by a fellah with skin shining like bronze, relieving his toil with that peculiar wailing chant which seems to the imaginative listener like the echo of the Israelites’ cry under their taskmasters wafted across the centuries. The shrill note of a steamer-whistle puts to flight these poctical fancies, and one of the Messrs. Cook’s tourist steamers, looking for all the world like a Hudson or Mississippi River steamer, dashes past at twelve knots an hour, filled with tourists more or less noisily appreciative of the Nile scenery. However, this incongruous and in- sistent note of modernity is flecting enough. Has not b appointed goab— some fifty miles or so higher up — to

reached by dusk, else the arrangements of the whole Nile itinerary, and the plans of hundreds of tourists would be utterly upset ?

Animal life, to say nothing of bird life, is far more

THE NILE AS A HEALTH- RESORT. 2538

abundant than ın Italy or France Flocks of pelicans stud the sand-banks, and the white paddy-birds may be nen busily engaged in fishing, while biilhantly decked kingfishers, graceful hoopocs, sun birds, and crested latks, t» say nothing of our familiar friend» the swifjs, swallows, md water wag tuls, are flitting about ove: the watr Oc asionuly, a kecn sighted travcilir will pet ra glimpse oi in cagle o1 vulture

Reptiles arc rcpicsented by various kinds of hzards and chimcleons Crocodiles, of course, are neve seen below the ~ cond Catirict though the monit : lizard, often mis ‘then for this reptile, 19 occasionally seen, and the unwary t unst occasionally has stufled specuucns palm d off upon lum, by the wily I gyptian, as young crocodiles

Hypcrcritical travellers occasionally complain that the nay of the Nik, especrdly of thit long two hundied wiles reach of desolate country which lics between the Tust and Sceond Cataracts, 15 monotonous It is true that there 1» not as much vanicty in the landscape as there 18 south of Luxor, for instince and human intcicst 18 ceitunly almost non existent, but though the conventional puturesqueness may be laking for the young lady artist who has only eyes for httlc bits that “compose ”’ casily, the #rand and impressive aspect of the Nubian landscape has a certain charm and attractiveness of its own to the ım- aginative traveller

The monotony 1s, perhaps, more subjective than objec- tive, and belongs to the spectator, and not to the things seen To some a great London highway hke the Strand Would be monotonous, while another would find the same fault with the Alps, because each peak geems to him very like another At all events, even if we grant a certain scenic monotony to the Upper Nile, who can complam when the traveller has daily presented to him the unique beauties of the Nile sunset, with its attendant glories of the zodiacal light?

254 THE CI1Y OF THE CALIPHS.

Perhaps of all the wonderful scemec effects of the Nile, the almost miraculous afterglow which follows the sunset is the most impressive Only those with a true “feeling for colour ” can properly appreciate it, and to attempt to portray ıt ehe: wıth pen or pencil would he futile These staitling effects miy be called miraculous because ine. plicable In the tropics, as cvery one knows, there 1s no afterglow

The suns nm digs the stars rush out, At one strid c mes the dark

sings Colerndge’s“ Ancient M umer: ” Only a scientist can explain why, in Lgypt, on the very threshold of the Tropic of Cancer, the sunsct’s aftcrglow lasts thrice as long as it does elscwhcre in the tempciate zone

Innumcrable travellers hive attempted to give an ım pressionist picture of the mystc11ous light effect produced by the flood of hquid gold which suffuses the whole hoti- zon after the sun’s disc has disappeared Mr H D Trall, perhaps, 1s a8 hippy as any observer in the following charm ing word-picture

Brighter and t righter giows the ifterglow and moire and more golden as it brighte: s —the red riys of the prism which assume such prominence 1n most Furopean sunsets seemin,, here to be far sur passed in intensity by the ycllow During this 1e1lumining of the landscape the deep orange of the western horizon has glowed steadily and undimmed but mcanwhile the quarter of the heavens lying immediately above 1t has undergone an astonishing change For slowly, during all the time there has been ascending from the skyline of the desert as its base and to an altitude of full thirty degrees above 1t a glorious arc of the softest rose colour, which melts as ıt draws nearer to the blue of the zenith into a gradually paling hlac, through the very mjdst of which looks forth the silver @ the evening star The chastencd magnificence, the sober splen dour of this atmospheric effect, surpasses imagination It is the very classicism of colour, just as the gorgeous hues of the actual spnset —its splashes of fierce crimson and blazing gold — might stand as typical of the mch exuberance of romance But the tame

THE NILE AS A HEALTH - RESORT. , 255

and spxce of this aertal marvel, the sphere of its radiance, and the spell of its duration are, perhaps, most wonderful of all Laterally measuicd, this arc of glory spans a full quarter of the horon Vertically, as has already been said ıt chmbs at least one-third uf the dome of sky between the horizon and the zenith and at last. ip fliwiess and unimpured beauty for a full halfhow The sunset ringe vgeanst which yon pissing string of camely ind thew tur binned leaders are silhouettes black as jet will have iaded into purple haze the evening stir wili hive changed fi m a rayless sp ch of silver into a flashing y wel, and tbe liae ot hilac in which it swims will have bhece me blinched ud cc Jo url re that great ros window thicugh which we hive tt nu gazing, as 11 to the lighted ith hal of the heavens, 1s itsclf at Last swallowed uj in night ’

Life on 4 dihabiych has many of the idvantages of a luxuriously appomtcd yacht, without 1ts inscparable and obvious drawbacks Thre are no storms, and, indeed, no alms, for a northern wind blows as i1cgularly as a trade vind, almost continuously during the winter and spring months You stop whcre you please, and as long as you please, without a thought of harbour ducs, or anxiety as to the holding capacity of the anchorage You can spend your time sketching, reading, or dosing, with a little shoot- ing to give a fillip to the perpetual dolce far mente You can explore ruincd temples and ancient monuments at yom leisure, without the disquieting reflections that the Theban rums or the Ptolemaic temples of Phile must be “done” ın a certain time, else the tourist steamer will proceed on its unalterable itinerary without you Finally, When tired of this perpetual picnic, you can enjoy for a few day3 the banal delights of a first-class modern hotel at Luxor or Assouan.

Such ıs hfe on a dahabıyeh , but, alas' tms Epıcurgan cxistence 1g not for the ordinary sun-worshipper. As I have shown, ıt 1s a particularly costly form eof holday- makıng, though the expense has been much exaggerated.

The valuable advice given 11 Murray’s “ Handbook for

256 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

Egypt,” on the hiring of dahabiy ehs, may be supplemented by the following hints If the hirer 1s a novice in Nile travel, or 1s not prepared to take a considerable amount of trouble, it will be bette: to hne the vessel through the Messrs Cook or Gaze, dircct But in this case the huner will not be so hkcly to feel himself “captun on his own quarter dech as he would if he hircd ducct from the owncr In the latter case it 1s decidedly an advantage to makc a scparate contract with the diagomin for the citcumy of the passen gcrs, and mothe: contract with the owner direct for the hire of the dihabiych, with fittings (which should be specifi cally set out), ind for the wiics of the 1¢15 (sailing mistr) and ciew If, however the cont: ct 15 made with the dragoman solely then tike } uns to aisecitan that the boat ig not the drazomin ys propurty, clse the temporary owner may find it dificult to muntun his .uthorty ind, besides the dragoman will naturally be inclined to be too careful of his craft, and will 1 use diffcultics about shooting the cata ricts or suling at might In short, the hirer will possibly find himself at 18 great 1 disidy intage as a yacht-owner in a foreign cruise who has nc_lectcd to have himself regis tered in thi yachts papuas s master

As to the time occupicd ın the voyage from Cairo to Assouan ind back, with favourable winds, 1t can be man aged ım geven or eight weeks But this would only allow three or four days at Luxor and Assouan Besides, any thing hke hurry 1s uttcrly foreign to the traditions of Nile voyaging, and three months would not be found too long for this tmp It may be remembered, too, that if the con- tract is for three months, the cost would be considerably less relatively than for twa months

The rates for dahabiychs vary considerably according to their size, age, and amount and nature of equipment and decorations But a8 some indication of the prevailing prices it may be mentioned that the Messrs Cook would charge

THE NILE AS A HEALTH - RESORT. 257

a party of seven, for three months on one of the oldest type of dahabiychs, £850 to £900, this price to include every- thing: while the charge for a modern dahabiyeh, luxuri- ously fitted up with bath-room, pantry, lavatories, ete., for the same period and the same number of passengers, might he anything from £1,100 upwards.

Life on a dahabiych is, no doubt, a lotus-eating existence, and it is not easy to resist the spell of the climate aud the restful genius loci of this enchanted land.

“ Lo ghde adown old Nilus, where he threads Egypt and Æthiopia, from the ster p Ot utmost Axumé, until he spreads, Like a calin flock of silver-fleecéd sheep, His waters on the plain, and crested heads Of cities and proud temples gleam amid, And many a vapour belted pyramid ”

But even the most hardened loafer and lover of the dolce far niente cannot help taking some interest in the grand monuments of an extinct civilisation, as well as in the archer- ological treasures, which so plentifully strew the river banks. Probably no great tourist-highway in the world offers so many easily accessible objects of historic and antiquarian interest as the Nile. Then, on a Nile voyage, sight-seeing 18 carried on under ideal conditions. It is a delightful relief to one accustomed to the hard labour of systematic sight-seeing at Rome, Florence, or Venice, for instance, to wander leisurely and uninterruptedly through the sun- steeped courts and shady colonnades of the ancient temples of Karnak or Phile. Another advantage is that here the visitors need not be continually disbursing petty cash for entrance fees, gratuities to attendants, guides, catalogues, etc. In Egypt, the single payment of £1, 6d, the Govern- ment tax, franks the tourist not only to these Theban treasure-houses of ancient art, but to all the monuments

and temples of Upper Egypt.

258 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

A series of voyages in the well-found and well-equipped tourist steamers of Messrs. Cook and Gaze will be found, however, a tolerable substitute for the invalid. In fact, the Messrs. Cook specially cater for this class of tourists by offering special terms to passengers making three consecu- tive trips on the basis of three voyages at the price of two. By this plan passengers can make three voyages from Cairo to Assouan and back for £100, the fare including board on the steamer during the few days’ stay at Cairo between the voyages. Thus nine weeks may be spent on the Nile at a less cost than a stay for the same period at a fashionable Cairo hotel. Considering that the mileage covered by these voyages amounts to about 3,500 miles, — equal to the distance from London to Alexandria by sea, — it is not surprising that this remarkably economical method of undertaking what is supposed to be one of the most expensive of river trips in the globe-trotter’s itinerary 1s becoming popular.

The cuisine on board these steamers, as will be seen from the annexed specimen menu, is varied and plentiful, if not actually luxurious, and should satisfy the most exi- gent traveller.

MENU on NILE TourRIst STEAMER. December Ist, 1896.

LUNCHEON. Hors d’(Kuvres. Rougets au Vin Blanc. Poulets au Sauté au Madére. Roast Beef — Pommes de Terre. Salade. Fromage. Dessert. Café DINNER.

Consommé Paté d’Italie. Poisson & la Orly.

Noix de Veau & la Livernaise. Epinards aux (ufs. Bécassines Roties. Salade. Baba au Pêches. Dessert.

Café.

THE NILE AS A HEALTH - RESORT 259

Many who take the Nile trip for the sake of health could qarcely be considered sick persons, and for the benefit of thcse sturdy invalids I add the following hints on the sport to be obtained during a Nile voyage

Of course all the best shooting 19 im the Delta, but a ccrtun amount of sport 15 obtainable by dahain,eh travel lers, cspeeitlty m the Theban plain Above Luxor owing to the scarcity of vegetation there 19 less over, and hares in] partridges ae not so ylentiful Of lute 4 cara, too, the [nzhsh ofhcucis stationed at the lfterent posta on the Up- wi Nile have thinned the game 1 goou deal In Lower 1.4) t tar bigs of smipe cin be obtained ln fact, snipe 18 tl principal winte: game in Leypt just as quail is during le spring months The former, however, aic rarely secn

n the Upper Nile, though gunl ire plentiful Duck and teal cvcrywhere on the Upper Nile, afford the best sport fn dahabıyeh passengers, and tht dinghy (filuka, whence telucca) attached to every dahabıych will sometimes serve to capture the shot birds in wild-fowl shooting

Big game 1s very scarcc, even mm the descrt near Wady Halfa, and sporting tourists fired by the accounts of cather generations of travellers, of hyenas, wolves, and }ickals haunting the Theban temples, will be disappointed Hyenas, like crocodilcs, are rarcly met with below the Second Cataract In fact, even to get a remote chance of bagging these beasts, covperation with the natives and a large outlay of bahshcesh would be necessary The sports- man would have to be prepared to camp out at might at thuir supposed haunts, which would have to be baited with the carcass of a donkey or some other domestic animal Gazelles are occasionally shot, but they require a consid- erable amount of stalking It must be remembered that, though permission to bring a sporting mfle or gun is readily granted to English tourists by the military authori- ties at Cairo, the import of powder or loaded cartridges

260 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

has, since 1894, for obvious reasons, been strictly pro. hibited, and all ammunition must be bought at Cairo.

Sportsmen should be careful about shooting pigeons in the vicinity of a village, otherwise they may get into diff- culties with the natives through shooting pigeons which are alleged to be domestic. As in France, no game license is necessary.

CHAPTER XXI. THE NILE FROM CAIRO TO THEBES

HE very mention of a Nile voyage recalls to most travellers the splendid monnmenta of Thebes, Phile, and Abou Simbel, while the ruins south of Luxor, some of which (those of Abydos in particular) historicaily perhaps of equal importance, are forgotten. No doubt the wealth of architectural treasures collected in one spot in the Theban plain obscures in popular imagination the isolated temples of Abydos or Denderah, or the ancient rock-shrines of Beni- Hassan. In short, nine out of ten travellers hurry on to the ruins of the Theban plain, and leave the ancient temples or tombs which bestrew the Nile Valley between Cairo and Luxor for a hurried and somewhat perfunctory Inspection on the return voyage, when, sated with the arch- itectural splendours of ancicnt Thebes, the less striking monuments north of Luxor come as an anti-climax.

We are all apt to forget, as Miss A. B. Edwards 1s care- ful to remind her readers, that the ancient history of Egypt goes against the stream. If we omt the conjectural, per- haps mythical, site of This, which is almost prehistoric, — and indeed the claims of Abydos and Girgeh are still wran- gled over by Egyptologists, —— it is in the Delta and on the banks of the Lower Nile that relics of the most ancient cities are to be found (at Tanis, Memphis, and Heliopolis, for instance), while the latest temples and tombs are found in the Upper Nile Valley, and in Nubia.

Those whose study of Egyptian antiquities is confined to the standard guide-books forget, too, that only the more

2t

262 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

important monuments, or those ın tolerable preservation, are ever mentioned First-hand study of the chief authorities shows that a complete Egyptulogical itineraiy of the Nile Valley would include antiquitics of which only a very small portion are visited by the ordinary Nile voyager.

Ben-Hassan, one hundicd and sevcnty miles fiom Cairo, 1s remarkable for the famous 10ckh-tombs excavated in ter races on the precipitous bink of the Nile The cliff has been cut through by the river, which formcrly reached to 1ts foot, but has since retired, sv that a considerable expanse of plain hes between the tombs and the Nıle These tombs belong to the twelfth dynast}, which dates fiom about 3000 to 2500 years B € Though nearly a thousand years more recent than the Sakkarah mastibas, they have pre- served the chief features of thom, and have a deep shaft leading to a coriidor which ends in a sarcophagus chamber There are about fifteen of thise tombs, most of which are carefully described ın Murray’s Handbook, but only two of them, those of Amını or Amen Em-Hat ahd kKhnem-Hetep II, are hkely to intcrest the average sight-seer

‘As in the tombs of \Assouan a suitibk laver of stone was sought for in the lull and when fcund the tombs were hewn out The walls were purtly smoothcd and then covered with a thin layer of plaster, upon which the scenes in the lives of the people buried there might be painted Ihe columns and the lower parts of some of the tombs are coloured red to resemble gramite ‘The northern tomb 1s remarkable for columns somewhat resembling those subse quently termed Doric Fach of the four columns ın the tomb 18 about seventeen feet high and has sixteen sides The ceiling between each connecting beam wich runs from column to column, 18 vaulted The columns in the southern tombs have lotus decore- tions, and are exceedingly graceful 1

ro the artist these famous grottoes are of enormous interest as the birthplace of Greek decorative art. The in- fluence of the most ancient school of design in the world of

1E A Wallis Budge “The Nile”

THE NILE FROM CAIRO TO THEBES 268

(;reek art 18 most ingeniously traced by Miss A B Edwards in her “ Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers,” a work which, though rather handicapped by its somewhat ad captandum title 18 of the highest value as a thoroughly well-informed intro luctien to the scicnce of Egyptology, treated in a pop- ular manner The Pelasgic decoration and paintings, of which cxccllent specimcns hive been found at Mycena, ar thouzht bv many scholais of the mghest repute to be the

1izinuls of those of the Aiyan Hellencs The dark inter- val of four or five hundicd yeus between the prehistoric ruins of Mycena and the oldest remains of the histone school cannot, howevcr be bridged over with any certainty 1 is nevertheless, conclusively proved that the “ Pclasgians went to Egypt tor then surface decoration, and the Hellenes for their architectural modcls ”

The puncipal sculptur 1] ornaments, such as the spiral, the kcy pattern, and the socalled honeysuckle pattern, — the lattes, according to Mr Pctiic, a florid imitation of the I zyptian lotus pattern,— which are often regarded as purcly Greek ın ongin, are undoubtedly Egyptian “They were all painted on the ceilings ot the Benı Hassan tombs, full twelve hundred ycars before a stone of the treasures of Mycenæ o1 Orchomonos was cut from the quarry” The spiral is continually found, either in its simplest form or combined with the lotus, in the decorations of these tombs

The earhest monument of Greck architecture 18 identi- fied with the ruins of a Doc temple at Corinth of about 650 B c, and any one of the columns of this — the old- est run in Greece — might have been taken bodily from one of the pillared porches of Beni-Hassan In fact, Fer- gusson, one of the Inghest authorities, does not hesitate to say that it 189 an indubitable copy of the Bemi-Hassan column This type of column, technically known as the protodoric, 1s, as the name implies, the prototype of the

264 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

famous Doric columns, — loftier, more graceful, and with a decorated, not a plain, entablature. There are, of course, other examples of this style in Egypt, and those who have visited Thebes wili remember the famous Corinthian col- umns of the Temple of Thotmes II]. at Karnak.

An early origin may be allowed to the Jomec column The lotus-leaf design — a characteristic, decorative feature of this class of column — “fuinished the architects of the Ancient Empire with a noble and simple model for decora- tive purposes Very slightly conventionalised, 1t enriches the severe façades of tombs of the fourth, fifth, and sixth dynasties, which thus preserve for us one of the earliest motives of symmetrical design in the history of ornament.”

The evolution of the elaborate 1rock-sculptures of Benı- Hassan and Abou Simbel from the almost prehistoric 1ock grotto makcs an itercsting subject to: those who are attracted by the study of ncciology, and of the sepulchral monuments of the ancient Egyptians

A very able and lucid summary ot the development of rock-tombs 1s to be found in a chapter on the art of the ancient Egyptians in Bacdeker’s Handbook. It 18, no doubt, customary among high-minded tiavellers to despise guide- book information, but in few technical works on this sub- ject will so clever and readable a summary be found as m the above-mentioned indispensable work of reference.

« The original motive of the roch tomb or sepulchral grotto was merely to find a tomb sufficientlv removed from all msk of flooding by the Nile, with a sufhciently dry and aseptic atmosphere to arrest the «decay of the corpse Soon a kind of mortuary chamber for mourners and friends was also excavated in the rock This was followed by a more pretentious mausoleum with several chambers

large area of wall surface seemed to demand agme kind of ornamentation Hence the sculptures in low-relief and distemper paintings. Where there were several chambers, ıt was natural that openings should be made im the walls to admit the ight. The next step was to convert the remaining portions of walls into polygonal

THE NILE FROM CAIRO TO THEBES 266

pillars for the support of the roof In the next place, the octagonal pillar was sometimes turned into one of sixteen sides, and some- times 1t was fluted Thus the pillars were converted nto columns —a distinction with a considerable difference, those columns which were, no doubt the direct originals of the better known Donic colimns and were cilled Protedoric or kgypto-Donc by Champol hon and kalkener fiom the resemblance to the Dorie columna of (Gr ece Polygonal columns of this character occur i the fret tomb cf Bent Hassan

Lhe architects of these tomls however were not unacquainted with a light and elegant mo le of | ulding above ground which can rot f ave originated im the grotte architecture This ts proved by their use of the lotus column the ,rototype cf which 18 a group of f ur lotus stalks boun l tog th r and secured at the top by rings or ligitures, the capital being formed ły the blossom

While the architecture of the clev nth and twelfth dynasties bears some slight 1esemblance to the cuirlier style the sculpture of th same period presents an almost tetil deviation from the ancient traditions The primitive lifelike realism to which we have already illuded 18 displaced by the mg 10us swiy of the canon by which ill yroportions are determined by fixed rules and all forms are necessarily stereotype 1 There s ems however to hive been no retrogression in point of technical skill for, as ın the tıme of Khifra the hardest miterials still became comphant and the diffi- culties of the minutest detail were still successtully overcome by the sculptor of the Pharaohs

The mural decorations consist mostly of pictures, painted on a specially prepared surface of fine-grained plaster, and there are few relief sculptures These paintings represent scenes ın the life of the deceased, and form a kind of pic- torial biography, which are not, as in the case of the paint- ings of later tombs, mtermingled with the conventional mystic representations of divinities “In the grouping of the various scenes, the artists seem to have been guided by a natural principle, which led them to place the Nile in the lowest register, the agricultural scenes in the middle, and desert scenes at the top. But little technical skill 14 shown mn the drawing The birds are always better drawn than

266 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

the human figures, but the natural features of the country are represented in the most conventional way, a series of ngzag lines standing for water, and a wavy outlined pink space, dotted with rcd and black, being the desert ” 1

Thc tomb of Khnem Hctep I] 18 m the northern group of tombs Remuns of 1 dromos or avenue leading to the portico can still be tiaced The piimeipal chamber or shrine contains a large figure of the deccased, who was one of the feudal lords of Lzypt in the time of the twelfth dynasty "This tomb ıs usuly known as No 1, for all the tombs here uc numbered In this shrine 15 a curious kınd of dado, punted to represent rose gramte, and the scheme of colom ot the calma consists of 10d and ycllow squares, with black and bluc quaticfoily This sepulchre is best known for the pamtin., which 1s supposed, but on doubtful authority, to represent Joseph, and bis brethren arriving in Egypt to buy coin At all cvents, 1t 1eprescnts the arrival in kzy pt of a band of forazness, thirty m num ber, who, fiom the features, seem to belong to the Semitic race Heading the procession, ind appircntly acting as the introduce: o: conductor, 13 the Czy ptian royal scribe, Nefer-hctcp, and thi main procession consists of the Aamn chief, Abeshi, “ the prince of the forcizn country,” and his flow count:;men They wear beards, and cai1y bows and arrows Some have supposed that the Aman were shep herds or hyksos

Equally interesting 1s the tomb of Ameni, of which the general structural arrangement 18 similar to that of the former tomb Ameni, or Amen-Em Hat, as he ıs some- times called, was a high functionary of the court of Useit- sep I , of the twelfth dynasty One painting in the picture Mery of this tomb descnbes pictonally his expedition into Ethiopia, and his triumphant icturn, laden with spol and trophies Jn the inscription on the wall, couched mm

1 Murray s Handbook for Egypt ’

THE NILE FROM CAIRO TO THEBES. 267

the usual vainglorious tone which was customary at that time, he sums up his achievements in peace and war, as follows:

“I have done all that I have said. I am a gracious and a com passionate man, and a ruler who loves his town. I have passed the course of years as the ruler of Meh, and all the labours of the palace hive been carried out by my hands J have given to the overseers of the temples of the gods of Meh three thousand bulls with their cows, ind no contribution to the hing’s storehouses have been greater than mine I] have never made a child gricve, I have never robbed the widow, T have never repulsed the labourer, I have never shut up t herdsman, I have never impressed for forced labour the labourer of 1 man who only employed five men There was never a person mis- tral lean my time, no one went hungry duiug iny rule, for 1f there were years of scarcity I ploughed up all the arable land ın the nome of Meh, up to its very frontiers on the north and south By this means I made its people live, and procured for them provision, so that there was not a hungry person among them And, behold, when the inundation was great, and the owners of the land became 1¢h thereby, T laid no additional tax upon the fields ”

In addition to the tombs there is a kind of rock-temple dedicated to the lion-headed goddess Sechet or Pasht, called Artemis (Diana) by the Greeks, which 18 known as the Speos Artemidos (the cave of Artemis). It is excavated in a rock at the entrance of a gorge about ten miles from the tombs. The place is known by the guides as Stabl Antar. This shrine, or temple, was begun bhy Thotmes III. and the famous Queen Hatasu, and was embellished with a few sculptures by Seti L., but was never completed. The only finished reliefs are on the inner wall of the portico; and as they are of a good period of Egyptian art, it is to be regretted that the other sculptures are in an unfinished state. In the plain to the south, not far from this valley, the vast cemetery of cats was dis- covered, in 1887. These mummified relics were found to possess fertilising properties, and were transported to Europe by the ton for manure.

268 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Between Beni-Hassan and the Theban plain, ruins of temples and tombs, Roman forts, eyrie-like convents, grot- toes, etc., abound, and the Nile voyager is rarely out of sight of some ancicnt monument. To visit all would, however, require the antiquarian zeal of a Flinders-Petrie or a Marictte; and even a mere digest of all the antiqui- ties in the four hundred and fifty miles of the Nile Valley, through which the traveller bound for Luaor, the great goal of all Nile voyages, passes, would require several volumes.

Some twenty miles beyond Beni-Hassan are the recently discovered rock-tombs of Tel-Hl-Amarna, hardly inferior in interest to the more famous ones we have just described. They were unearthed and scientifically examined by Prof. Flinders-Petrie, during excavations undertaken in 1892. This excursion is especially attractive to artists on account of the exquisite design and colouring in the painted pave- ments, — the relics of the palace of Khu-en-Aten (1400 B. C.), about two miles from the tombs. One floor is in an excellent state of preservation, and the colours are remark- ably fresh. A new artistic influence is seen in the treat- ment of the figures represented in this beautiful series of frescoes ; and animals, birds, insect life, plants, ete., are drawn with a remarkable fidelity to nature, offering’a strong contrast to the stiff and conventional treatment in other animal paintings of the Middle Empire. This new art was introduced by the highly cultured King Khu-en- Aten, who seems to have introduced reform in art along with reform in religion, for Khu-en-Aten had calmly adopted the cult of Amen, the God of Thebes, to that of Atgn, an Asiatic deity symbolised by the solar disk.

ear this palace was discovered, in 1887, the Record. Office, as it may be called, of this enlightened monarch. A large number of bricks were found with the inscription, “The House of the Rolls,” which’ clearly showed the ob-

THE NILE FROM CAIRO TO THEBES. 269

ject of the building. Here Professor Petrie came across a valuable find of the greatest importance to historians and archeologists. It consisted of several hundred clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform characters, comprising despatches tv the king from his brother sovereigns of Babylonia and Assyria, “The tablets cast a vivid and unexpected hght on Egypt and Western Asia im the fifteenth rentury before Christ, and show that Babylonian was at that time the language of education and diplomacy. They also show that education must have been widely extended from the [iuphrates to the Nile, and that schools must have existed for teaching the foreign language and script. Canaan was governed at the time by the Egyptians, much as Indra is governed to-day by the English, but the ofhcials and cour- tiers of the Pharaoh were for the most part Asiatics, the larger number being Canaanites.”

Soon after passing the village of Beni-Hassan we come to one of the most picturesque series of reaches in the whole Nile voyage, and here the beautiful dom-palm is first seen. A few miles beyond Tel-El-\marna the mag- nificent precipices of Gebel Abu Faydah are a stmking feature of the scencry. They extend, a precipitous ram- part, along the eastern bank of the Nile for nearly a doven miles, and to American visitors will, perhaps, recall memories of the famous Palisades on the Hudson. Half concealed in the topmost clefts and fissures of these stu- pendous precipices may be seen the caves Where dwelt the celebrated monks and ascetics of Upper Egypt; and in one of these caverns, according to a monastic tradition, Athanasius sought shelter for a time.

Innumerable tombs, as yet not systematically explored, and rarely visited by tourists, line the terraces of these cliffs. At the top is the famous cemetery of mummified crocodiles. These pits and caverns which comprise this saurian necropolis are not well known ever to the lecal -

270 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

guides, and to visit them alone would be exceedingly haz- ardous. Within recent years a party of tourists lost their lives in exploring the suffocating labyrinth, and, if tke guides are to be believed, their bodies were never re- covered.

Abydos lies on the west bank of the Nile, some three hundred and fifty miles from Cairo, and was thought by many Egyptologists to occupy the site of This, the earliest historical city of Egypt, and the home of Menes, the first king of the first dynasty; but the systematic excavations of Mariette scarcely support this view. It was, however. one of the most renowned cities in ancient Egypt, attain- ing its greatest splendour in the eleventh and twelfth dynasties, and ranked second to Thebes as a centre of learning and religious thought.

The temples are, of course, the chief curiosities herc; but to scholars and antiquarians the necropolis is of the greatest importance, as here can be scen specimens of the three types of tombs which were used at various periods by the Egyptians. The earlier tombs belong to the sixth dynasty, and are of the mastaba class. Those of the eleventh and twelfth dynasties are in the forms of small, brick pyramids, while those of the eighteenth dynasty show a revival of the early rectangular sepulchre.

It is curious that the usual practice of burying the dead in grottoes or caves excavated in the sides of cliffs or in- land hills was not followed at Abydos. Instead of choos- ing the limestone hills, which lay ready to hand, the citizens of Abydos preferred for sepulchral purposes the sandy plains interspersed with rocks.

The principal monuments here are the temples of Rameses tH@Great and Seti. Tho former is said to be dedicated to, Osiris, the tutelary deity of Abydos, whose head was sup- posed to be buried here. In fact, one of the chief titles of this god is “Lord of Abydos,” as may be seen in the fa-

THE NILE FROM CAIRO TO THEBES. 271

mous funerary tablet (now ın the Haworth collection) of the Theban priest Napu, who lived nearly twenty-five centuries ago Some doubt has, however, beon thrown by the newer school of Egyptologists on the claim put forward for thus temple as the original sanctuary of Osiris, since the failure of Marictte, in the course of his researches m 1864, to tnd any trace of the shrine of this god. “ During the French occupition of Egypt,” writes Dr Wallis-Budge, “in the ‘arly pait of this century, this temple stood almost intact , since thit timc, however, so much damage has been wrought upon it, that the portions of wali which now remain are only about cight or nine feet hgh” It was tre that a fragment of the tamous Tablet of Abydos, a duphie ite of the one still 2 seu on the wall of the adjacent temple of Seti, was discovered by Mariette, in 1864. It is now mmn the British Museum The tablet ıs of the greatest historical importance, as 1t gives the names of seventy-five kings, beginning with Mencs and ending with Seta I. It is not, however, a complete list, and gaps have to be supplied from the Tablet of Karnak, now in the Museum of the Louvre

The temple of Scti, often called the Memnonium, is the Palace of Memnon described in some detail by Strabo, who bt itcs that 1t was constructed in a singular manner, entirely of stone, and after the plan of the Laby:inth The greater portion of the temple was built by Seti, but his son, Rameses Il , 18 regponsible for most of the relief and other mural dec- orations. Here we find another copy of the famous poem of Pentaur This 1s the well-known illustrated historical epic of the Khita campaign of Rameses II. It 18 familiar to all Nile travellers, as the numerous episodes of this war, quaint pictures in bas-relief, confront the visitor, not only at Abydos, but at Abou Sımbel, Luxor, Karnak, and Thebes. This poem, so evidently written to order by the poet laureate of the time, 1s published, as Miss Edwards forcibly

272 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

puts it, in a truly regal manner, in an edition (necessarily limited) issued on stone, illustrated with bas-reliefs, while, to continue the metaphor, the temple walls form an in- perial binding to this sumptuous epic.

The temple of Seti is unique as being the only ancient Egyptian roofed temple yet remaining, for of course the Denderah, Edfu, and other temples of the Ptolemaic era are modern in comparison. The construction of this roof was peculiar. Huge blocks, extending from the architraves on each side of the temple, were placed on their sides, not on their faces. Through this mass of stone an arch was cut which was decorated with hieroglyphics and sculptures.

There are three places in the Upper Nile Valley where the architecture of the Ptolemaic age can be studicd, — Denderah, Phila, and Edfu, where the finest monuments of the Ptolemies replace the ordinary architectural relics of the Pharaohs.

Denderah lies on the west bank of the Nile, only three or four miles from Keneh, so that it is very easy of access. The present temple is evidently ult on the ruins of a tem- ple dedicated to the goddess Hathor, the Greek Aphrodite, which, according to the results of Marictte’s discoveries, was founded by Cheops, This temple, however, never held very high rank among the fanes of the Ancient Empire, perhaps owing to its proximity to the famous shrines of Abydos and Thebes. The wonderfully preserved building which we see is the work of the later Ptolemies, while it was completed as recently as the first century.

Egyptian sculpture had long been on the decline before the erection of the present temple of Denderah; and the Egyptian antiquary looks with little satisfaction on the

celess style of the figures and the crowded profusion of ill-adjusted hieroglyphs that cover the walls of this as of other Ptolemaic or Roman monuments. But the archi- tecture still retained the grandeur of an earlier period, and

THE NILE FROM CAIRO TO THEBES. 273

though the capitals were frequently overcharged with ornament, the general eftect of the porticoes erected under the Ptolemies and Caesars is grand and imposing, and fre- quently not destitute of elegance and taste.

These remarks apply very particularly to the temple of Dendcrah, and from its superior state of preservation it deserves a distinguished 1anh among the most interesting monuments of Egypt. For though tts columns, considered singly, muy be said to have a heavy, perhaps a barbarous ippeirance, the portico 18 doubtless a noble specimen ot irchitecture; nor is the succeeding hall devowl of beauty und symmetry of proportion The preservation of the roof uso adds greatly to the beauty as well as to the interest of the portico ; for many of those in the Egyptian temples lose their effect by bemg destitute of roofs. Generally speaking, Egyptian temples are more picturesque when in runs than when entire; being, if scen from without, merely a large, dead wall, scarcely ielicved by a slight increase in the height of the portico But this cannot be said of the portico itself; nor did a temple present the same monotonous appearance when the painted sculptures were in their original state ; and it was the necessity of re- heving the large expanse of flat wall which led to this rich mode of decoration.

The temple of Denderah 1s probably best remembered On account of the famous portraits in relief of Cleopatra and her son Cesarion on the exterior of the erd wall. The queen is conventionally drawn as an Egyptian type, according to the canons of Egyptian portraiture which had determined the portraits of gods and kings for over fifteen hundred years. For some reason Cleopatra’s portrait has been accepted by modern writers as an excellent likeness of the “ serpent of old Nile;” yet, as Professor Mahaffy observes in his “ Empire of the Ptolemies,” it is no more a likeness than the well-known granite statues in the Vatican are true

274 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

portraits of Philadelphus and Arsinoe. The artist, in fact, had probably never scen the queen. “This Egyptian por- trait is likely to confirm in the spectator’s mind the impression dcrived from Shakespeare’s play, that Cleopatra was a swarthy Egyptian, in strong contrast to the fair Roman ladies, and suggesting a wide difference of race. She was no more an Egyptian than she was an Indian, but a pure Macedonian, ga race akin to, and perhaps fairer than, the Greeks. ‘¥

Another object of peculiar interest in this temple is the famous zodiac painted on the ceiling of the portico, which was erroncously supposed by Egyptologists of the last gen- eration to be a relic of the.Pharaonic ages. Marictte’s researches have, however, established the fact that, like its fellow in the temple of Ezra, this zodiac must be attributed to the Ruman period. Another zodiac was, till 1821, to be seen in the curious little upper chapel, or subsidiary temple, dedicated to Osiris, the tutelary deity of Denderah. This is usually known to the local guides as “The Temple of the Roof.” Owing to the disgraceful vandalism so prev- alent in the time of Mehemet Ali, who, although an enlightened monarch in many respects, does not seem to have possessed the slightest appreciation of Egyptian antiquities (of which he should have been the national guardian), the zodiac was actually cut out bodily from its wall, and presented to France, where it may be seen iD the Louvre Museum. One is bound to admit, however, that the recollection of that shameful spoliation of the friczes of the Parthenon, by Lord Elgin, makes this natural indig- nation on the part of English visitors rather inconsistent. The only palliation in the case of the Elgin marbles was

t there was some risk of their being spoilt by wind and weather if they remained in stu. In Egypt, however, this excuse cannot be urged. The preservative effects of the dry and rainless climate of the Upper Nile are well known.

THE NILE FROM CAIRO TO THEBES. 275

The structural arrangement of the Denderah temple, or rather congeries of temples, 1s very interesting Though this monument 18 for the most part the work of Greek and Roman architects, the main features of the Pharaonic imple have been retaincd Owmg to its well-preserved condition, this tuple, albeit modernised, will, perhaps, give the spectator a better idea of what the ancient Egyptian tomples wac m theu pristine splendour than even the mag- mficcnt 1unfs of the 100fless te mpleg at Karnak or Luxor

Owing to the continuous work of cxcavation recently undertaken for several scasons by Mariette, this beautiful temple 13 now completely accessible, even to the last of its num rous chambas Itis difficult to speak too highly of the energy and cntcrprise which, by clearing away the wcumulated rubbish of ccnturies,— for a whole village of mud huts had actually sprung up on the roof,— has ef- fected this

One finds here the usual features of all Egyptian tem- ples, —the crude brick wall enclosure, dromos, pylons, por- ticoes, regula: serics of halls corresponding to the nave, chancel, and choir ot Christian cathedrals, ete In some of the columns and internal decorations the influence of Greek art 18, however, clcarly traceable, and thc same thing strikes the eye at once in some of the ancient templcs of India

We enter through a magnificent portico, or vestibule, Supported by twenty-four columns This leads into an- other hall, called the “ Hall of the Appearance,” and then we reach the “Sanctuary ot the Golden Hathor” Around the gréat temple are several subsidiary shrines, of which the most interesting ıs the temple dedicated to Ise. It 18 here that the sacred cow ıs sculptured, and, according to Murray’s Handbook, the Sepoys, who formed part of the Enghsh army of occupation in the beginning of the century, prostrated themselves before the figure of this sacred animal.

276 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Edfu, which is only seventy miles north of the First Cataract, ought strictly to be left for the chapter on As- souan, as our order is mainly topographical. lt is, how- ever, best to include in one chapter a survey of the famous "triad of Ptolemaic temples, — Denderah, Esnch, and Edfu, —all of which have much in common. The temples of the Ptolemies have, perhaps, gained a fictitious importance in the minds of tourists owing to their strikingly pictur- esque background, but architecturally they Are inferior, and can more conveniently be described separately.

It is only within the last few years that credit for these magnificent architectural achievements has been allowed to the Ptolemies by modern historians. Owing to the adop- tion of the ancient Egyptian religious symbols in the sculp- tures of these Greck temples, and the grafting of the Egyptian faith by fusing their gods with those in the Greek mythology, —Serapis is a well-known instance, — modern scholars have long been at fault as to the origin of these temples, which were usually attributed to the Pharaohs; and it was imagined that the Ptolemaic sov- ereigns had left no permanent mark in Egypt. Letronne was the first to convince Egyptologists of their error, by showing that the Greek inscription agreed with those in hieroglyphics.

The Temple of Edfu was not, indeed, the work of any one sovereign. It took over one hundred and eighty years in building; and every Ptolemy, from its founder Ptolemy III., down to Ptolemy XIII. (Auletes), who completed it, seems to have had a hand in restoring or enlarging this splendid temple.

CHAPTER XXII. “THE CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES.” ‘A rose-red city — half a¢ old as time "

HE spot on which ancient Thebes stood is so admir-

ably adapted for the site of a great city, that it would have heen impossible for the Egyptians to overlook it. The mountains on the east and west side of the river sweep away from it, and leave a broad plain on each bank of several square miles in extent. It has been calculated that modern Paris would scarcely cover the vast area of ancient Thebes.

Luxor itself lies on the east bank of the Nile, some four hundred and fifty miles from Cairo, in the midst of this verdant and fertile plain. It is a considerable village, — in fact, a modest town,—and its inhabitants (some two thousand in number) apparently divide their time in agri- cultural pursuits, the exploitation of the tourist, and the manufacture of spurious antiquities.

The first view from the dahabiyeh or Nile steamer of the smiling expanse of verdant plain —so different from the tourist’s preconceived idea of dosert landscape pom which are Karnak, Luxor, and the other scatteged villages which lie on the site of ancient Thebes, whose ruins show it to have been one of the largest cities in the world, is singularly impressive from the striking contrast. At once ne realises the felicitousness of Homer’s epithet, —

“ Not all proud Thebes’ unrivalled walls contain, The world’s great Empress on the Egyptian plain 271

278 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS,

That spreads her conquests o er a thousand states, And pours her heroes through a hundred gates Two hundred horscinen and two hundred cars Fiom cach wide portal issuing to the wars

The stupendous misses of misonry, the propylons and pylons of the ancient temples, —he atompylona, no doubt refer to these gateways, ind not to those of the city, which was never wiled,— arc seen toweriny ibove the palms The vallcy 1s surroundcd by a midge of hills broken into cone shiped peiks neuly two thousind feet high In January the plain 1s alicady verdint with barfey, with flowering lentils and vetchcs and inti1spe1scd with patches of golden sugar ¢ ine

Most of the Thcban ruins uc on the west branch of the Nile , but the grandest monumcnt of ill, the Great Temple of karnak, the larzcst ind most maznificcnt ichitcctural ruin in the whole world, 1s on the cast bink «bout one and a halt miles from Luxor Its enormous sıze ind Titanic proportions arc the prcdomin int imprcssions on the part of the tourist, and its architectural and artistic beauties are at first lost sight of in a bewildering sense of bulk and imme sity That the visito: should b «almost stupefied by the vastness of scale is scarily surprising, when we consider that four Notre Dime Cithedrals could be built within the area included by the outer walls of this temple, and that the propylon (cntrance giteway) equals in breadth alone the length of the navo of many Lnglish cathedrals, and in height equals that of the nave of Milan Cathedral Ten men would be requied to spin the colossal pillars in the great hall, yet there 1s no suggestion of unwieldiness in a cyclopean proportions, and the beautiful calyx-capitals

pen out against the blue sky as hghtly as the finest stone tracery above an English cathedral nave ”

Thebes appears to have been for ovér two thousand years not only the capital of Egypt and the seat of govern-

‘rag CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES.” 249

ment, but also her ecclesiastical metropolis, a kind of Egyp- tian Rome or Canterbury. Almost every sovereign, from Usertsen I. (B. c. 2433) to the Ptolemies, seems to have regarded the embellishment of this famous shrine, or the addition of subsidiary temples, as a sacred duty. A glance at Mariette’s plans of the original building, and that of the temple, or rather group of temples, in the time of the Ptolemies, shows very clearly the gradual development of the building. To those who take an interest in æ chi- tecture, the mingling of the vatious styles du:ing this long riod is very instructive.

- Lor splendour and magmiude, the group of temples at Karnak forms the most magnificent 1uin 1n the world Ihe temple area 18 surrounded by a wall of crude brick, 1 some pl ues still 50 feet in hoght, along the top of which you may ride for half an hour the great hall of the Great Temple meast res 170 feet by 329 feet, ind the roof, single stones of which weigh 100 tons, 18 supported by 134 massive columns, 60 feet in height The forest of columns stands so thick that tiom no one spot 19 1t possible to see the whole area of this stupendous hall, and wee hs may easily be spent in fol- lowing the detail of the pictures with which the walls are covered, ~ battles, sieges, searfights, processions of captives, offerings to the gods massacres of prisoners embassies frum foreign lauds bearing gifts and tribute, voyages of exploration and their results; the whole history of Egypt durmg the most splendid period of her greatness 18 recorded on the walls and pylons of the Theban temples.” *

One of the most striking features of the Great Temple is the splendid obelisk in front of the fourth pylon, erected by Queen Hatasu, who may almost rank with Rameses the Great as one of the most famous royal builders of Egypt. This magnificent column stands preéminent as the loftiest, best proportioned, and most claborately engraved of any Obelisk in existence. It 1s one hundred and nine feet high in the shaft, and is cut from a single flawless block of red granite.

1 Jgaac Taylor

280 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

The dates in the inscription engraved on the plinth show that this magnificent monolith was dug out from the granite quarries of Assouan, conveyed to Thebes, a hun- dred and thirty miles distant, dressed and engraved, and erected in its present position within seven months. The only erect obelisk which at all approaches Queen Hatasu’s monolith in size is the one which stands in front of the Church of St. John Lateran, the mother-church of Rome, which was brought from Egypt in the reign of Constantine the Great. The famous twin “ Needles of Cleopatra,’ now in the Central Park, New York, and on the Thames Em- bankment, are pigmies in comparison.

Though the Luxor Temple is of inferior interest, and in the matter of dimensions alone the stupendous fane of Karnak bears the same relation to it that a European cathedral does to one of its side-chapels, yet anywhere but here it would command respectful attention from the trav- eller. So great is the wealth of antiquities which strew the site of the ancient Egyptian capital that visitors there are, indecd, spoilt for all other ruins which are not of surpassing interest. As the Luxor Temple lies at the threshold of the hotels, it can be visited frequently by the conscientious sight-seer without much loss of time. To avoid the feeling of an anti-climax it is advisable that the first visit to this temple should be made before that to the Great Temple of Karnak. Its most noteworthy feature is a fine obelisk of red granite, covered with admirably carved hieroglyphics. Its fellow is familiar to most visitors, per- haps without knuwing it, inasmuch as it adorns the Place de la Concorde, Paris.

t is interesting to trace the history of the Egyptian obelisks. Fifty-five, without reckoning the uncompletede ones at Assouan, are recorded in history. Twenty-seven of these historic monoliths were quarried at Assouan. A larger number than is usually supposed have been trans-

“THE CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES.” 281

ported to Europe, the trophies for the most part of Greek and Roman empcrois, and are scattered among the great Continental capitals. Nearly a dozen are in Rome, one ıs in Constantinople, another towers over the Place de la Con corde in Paris, while the most famous of all in popular estimation, the twin “ Necdles of Cleopatra,’ have tound a home, as every schoolboy knows, in New York aud London respectively lt may be remarked that many modern writeis on these chiuractenstic monuments of Lgy pt — for a whole litera- ture has giown up round these monulithie colt mns — have mvcighed against the vandalism of the Romans ın strip- pug Egypt of these memorials of her former greatness Krom English and American authors, however, this scarecly comes with a good grace, considermg the cagerness dis- played in appropriating Cleopatia’s famous obelisnks This, howcver, 18 but a venial ciror of taste compared with the Cshibition of the mummified remans of the Pharaohs 1m the Ghizeh Museum Many are the theories ventilated by antiquanans to account for the characterist« shape of the obelisk. That it Was symbolical 19 now generally admitted. According to pome authorities, its peculiar form symbolises the rays of the sun, while some anthropologists are inclined to attrib- ute a deeper and Jess obvious ongin, and consider that, like the pyramids, obelisks are intended as an emblem of the vital piimciple for esoteric reasons, which need not he discussed mm a non technical work The temples of Luxor and Karnak, however, comprise only a small portion of the ruins which have made Thebes one of the most frequented shrines of tourist culture in «Egypt. On the other bank of the Nile are the Ramasscum, the temples of Rameses II. and IH , the Vocal Memnon, the rock-tombs of the kıngs,— the most impressive in point of situation of any collection of mausolea in the

282 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

world, — and other 1uins concerning which innumerable guide-books and Egyptian works of travels are eloquent The whole of ancient Thebes 18, mdeed, one vast buried museum of antiquiticts In short, the siying that in thi Nile Valley you have only to scratch thc surface to come upon a crop of intiquitics applics with «special force to the City of the Hundicd Grates Lhough thc directors of the Ghizch Muscum hive been puticululy ictive in this region of late years and have mide c nsidcr ible progress im the work of excivition i mcit portion of the Valley of the Dead, in Western Th bes, is vngm soil The tombs ana monuments that have been discovered however, in this vast necropolis would not be cxhiustcd by the sicht seer under several wecks, while as tor the students of Ly ptol ogy a stay of several scasons, instcad of weckhs, might be madc here with idy antant The extiandmairy wealth of mtiquitics m thi Theban plan, and the great hist wie md inti ywuiin value of hu nak and Thebes will requie ı Imza chapter than usual, even tor a superficial notice of the principal monuments For the practical purpose of vetting some idea of the confusing topogiaphy of the site of ancicnt Ihcbes and 11s vast cemetery, 18 wcll as for the rsthctic enjoyment of an incomparable view, onc of the peaks ot the mountain bar ner: Which keeps guard over the Tombs of the Kings should be chmbed Unique 1s the prospceet of the smiling Theban plain, through which the Nile meanders like a sil- ver thread, bounded by the Arabian Mountains On the right arc Hatius s Temple of Dar Ll Bahar and the Temple of Rameses III, and mght before us 1s the Memnonium, on left are the Temple and Palace of Rameses I “Some ance in advance of these stand, hke videttes, the twite Coloss1 Then, on the other side of the Nile, Luxor raises its gigantic columns fiom the river’s edge, and gigantic propylons mark the Karnak temples

“THE CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES.” 283

The remarkable temple gencrally known as the Rames- seum, which “for symmetry of architecture and elegance of sculpture can vie with any other Egyptian monument,” is really the cenotaph or mortuary temple (corresponding to the mastabas of Memphis) of Rameses II. In the entrance court a colossal figure of Rameses seated on a throne used to confront the worshipper. The ruins scat- tered round the pedestal show ıt to have been the most vigantic figure—to which the Abou Simbel colossi were but stuuettes— ever carved in Eyypt from a single block of manite. The fact that the granite of this .tutue would have made three of the great obelisks of Karnak will give sole idea of its dimensions. It was probably destroyed by the Persians under Cambyses.

“ By some eatravidinary catastrophe this statue has been thrown lown, and the Arabs have scooped their millstones out of his face; but you can see what he was, — the largest statue ın the world Far ind wide hig enormous head must have been seen, — eyes, nose, and tus Far and wide you must have seen his hands resting on his tlephantine knees You sit on his breast and look at the Osiride statues which support the portico of the temple, and they seem pig- mies before him. Nothing that now eaists in the world can give ny notion of what the effect must have been when he was erect. Neto, towering above the Colosseum, may have been something like it, but he was of brass, and Kameses of solid granite. Rameses, also, was resting in awful majesty after the conquest of the whole known world.”

This colossus forms the subject of one of Shelley’s sonnets :

“T met a traveller from an antique land, Who said - Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lips and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things

1 A. P. Stanley, D D.

284 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

The hand that mocked and ihe heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The proverbial poctic license must, of course, be ac- corded to Shelley’s description of the “lone and level sands,” which suggests the solemn associations of the more impressive Sphinx, sitting Mm lonely majesty in the actual desert. The Theban plain is a richly cultivated tract, and the colossus lies among plots of maise and lentils. But Shelley never visited Egypt. It is a little curious that Egypt, which offers such a rich field for poetic treatment, has never had justice done to it by modern poets of the first rank. Spain has had Southey for its laureate, and Germany, Coleridge and Longfellow; while as for Italy and Switzerland, a whole army of pocts have sung their praises, from Shelley, Byron, and Landor down to the facile rhymester Rogers. Egypt, with all its wealth of material for an epic poem, has done little more than inspire a few fragmentary sonnets from Shelley, Leigh Hunt, and Moore.

The most popular, if the word is permissible in connec- tion with these stupendous ruins of an extinct civilisation, of all the Theban monuments are the two Colossi, which for over three thousand years daily watched the dawn breaking over the Karnak temples. These two alone remain, though they probably formed but the vanguard of a procession of statues which guarded the approach to the palace of King Amen-Hetep III., which has now almost

rely disappeared. The most celebrated of these two, statues is, of course, the one known as the Vocal Memnon, from a tradition that it emitted sounds when the sun’s rays fell upon it, Many are the theories ventilated by scientists

“THE CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES” 285

to explain the origin of this legend, for, needless to say, the statue 1s mute now, and, indeed, has been silent, accord- ing to the chroniclers, since it was repaired in the reign of thi Emperor Severus Such inquiries are, however, futile cnough, 15 there 1s littl doubt that the credulous worship- pers were deceived by a “ pious fraud” of the pri sts, who were cather: possesscd of ventriloquial skill ò: contented themselves with hiding in the statue and secretly striking it (Certain kinds of granite have, it i well known, a mus cal ring Humboldt has described similar sounding ixcham the Orinoco Valley, which yielded n usical notes, supposed to be caused hy wind passing through the chinks, und agitating the spingles of mica into audible vibration [he pedestal of this statue 1s covered with what may be comsidered testimonials of 18 musical merits, inscribed in (creck and Latin by visitors from the first century down wuds One of these insciiptions 1¢cords the visit of the Tmpero: Hadiian The most important monument, from an archeological point of view, as well as the most interesting, 18 the fa- mous Temple of Queen H itasu (Hatshepsu), daughter of Thotmes I, and wife as well as half sister of Thotmes II, who appears to have been the Cleopatra of the eighteenth dynasty This temple is a fit memorial of the “ spacious diys” of a sovereign who has been frlicitously termed the Quecn Ehzabeth of Egypt Its principal features are admi- rably described by Miss A B Edwards, in the following passage This superb structure 1s architecturally unlike any other temple m Egypt It staħds at the far end of a deep bay or natural amphi- theatre, formed by the steep limestone cliffs which divide the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings from the Valley of the Nile Approached ‘by a pair of obelisks, a pylon gateway and a long avenue of two hundred sphinxea, the temple consisted of a succession of terraces and fights of steps, rising one above the other, and ending in a maze of colonnades and courtyards, uplifted high against the mountain-eids,

286 THE CIT’ OF ITHE CALIPHS.

The sanctuary or holy of holies to which all the rest was but as an avenue 18 excavated in the face of the cliff some five hundred feet above the level of the Nile [he novelty of the plan 1s so great that one cannot help wondering whether it was suggested to the architect by the nature of the ground or whether ıt was im any degree 1 1¢miniscence of strange ¢difices seen im far distant lands It bears vt all events a certain resemblance to the terraced tem] les

of Chalda "The unearthing and restoration of the rums of this great temple his becn onc of the most important works carricd out within icccnt years by the Egyptian Explora- tion Society Thc work had occupicd them four succes sive wintcrs, and wis only completed | ist season (1896 7) The discovciis brought to hght during this long and sy» tematic exrcivation arc of the gicatcst antiquarian and historical value One of the most siznificant was the dis covery of a lirge hall in which wais a huge stone altar, the only one discovercd in F yzypt = The altar 1s dedicated to Queen Hatasu’s father, Humichis It is curious that Hatasu s cartouche 18 1arcly found perfcct It 19 usually more or Ics erased, probably through the jealousy of her successor, Thotmes HI The cartouche, which 18 such an essential feature in all stonc mscriptions, seems to have virtually served the purpose of a modern visiting-card Close to this t.mple is the decp pit in which were found the royal mummies in 1881 In all probability there was some kind of undergiound communication between this temple and the royal cemetery, known only to the priests The Temples of Rameses I and Rameses IIJ, lying respectively at the eastern and western extremities of the Theban necropolis, are of especial interest to the a of history on account of the paintings and m- iptions which cover the walls The series of ptorial sculptures on the walls of the Medinet Abou (Rameses II ) Temple form a kind of panorama in stone, and are of the greatest value to the historian as a pictorial chronicle of

‘THE CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES.” 287

the conquests of Rameses III. No doubt they were in- tended to rival the famous illustrated epic of Pentaur, the poet laureate of Rameses the Great, in which the mighty achievements of that monarch were sung.

The temple has been recently completely cleared of rubbish. The sccond court, in the opinion of Mariette one of the most precious in any Egyptian temple, is the most interesting feature. The circular columns are very richly painted. The walls are covered with the inevitable pattle-scenes. It was here that une of the most important discoveries of papyrus in Egypt was made. Among them was the famous Harris papyrus, now im the British Musi um, which gives a very full précis of the reign of Rameses II.

Tn order to appreciate the importance of the excavations which have laid bare all thes wonderful ruins in the Theban necropolis, thus adding to our knowledge of the political and social life of the ancient Egyptians, we must remember that the Theban temples were intended to serve many purposes. They are, of course, chiefly memorial chapels, like the Medici Chapel at Florence, or the Spanish Escurial; but they also served as a treasury, a kind of muniment room, a library, and even as a kind $f national portrait gallery.

The Tombs of the Kings should be reserved for a whole day’s excursion. They are hewn out of the living rock in the mountains, some three miles from the western bank of the Nile. The contrast between the fertile plain and these gloomy mountain gorges is very striking, and the name “Valley of Death,” which has been given to these dreary and desolate defiles, is happily chosen. The kings of the nineteentlt and twentieth dynasties were buried here, though, as we have seen, the royal mummies had been removed to Dar-El-Bahari, about 966 B. c., to secure them against pil- lage, — a precaution, we are reminded by the presence of the

288 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

mummies at Ghizch, quite ineffectual against the excavations of savants and antiquarians Several of the bost saicophagi, too, are distributed among Continental museums; for ın stance, the sarcophagus of Rameses III 1s in the Louvre, the lid in the FitzWilliam Museum at Cambridge, while the mummy itsclf 13 in the Caro Museum Though the chief interest of these tombs is thercfore wanting, the tombs themselves are worthy of thorough examination The prn- ciples of construction are similu to those of the Assouan tombs. They consist of long inclined tunnels, intersected by mortuary chambcis which in some cases burrow into the heart of the rock for fou or five hundred fect —“ Belzont’s Tomb” is onc of the “show” oncs Here was burd Seti L, the father of Ramescs the Great This magnificent sar- cophagus 15 one of the chicf treasures of the Soane Museum, London It 1s mne fect im length, carved out of one block of translucent Oriental alabaster It 15 covcied both insidc and out with hicroglyphic writing and figures from the mythology of Egy pt, representing the judgment of the dead, and other subjects This sarcophagus was discovered by Belzom, 1n the year 1817, and purchased by Su John Soane from M2. Salt, in 1824, for the sum of £2,000

AccordMg to Strabo, there arc forty of these royal tombs, but the labours of the Government officials have not yet succeeded in bringing to light more than twenty-five of these sepulchies Scarcely more than half of the tombs which have been opcned are included, however, ın the ordi- nary dragoman’s programme The walls of the corndors and of the mortuary chambe: are covercd with extracts from the “ Book of the Dead,” and: with paintings, which show skilful and elaborate draughtsmanship.

“On one of the subterranean corridors leading to Belzoni’s Tom there 1s an allegory of the progress of the sun through the hours, painted with great detail the God of Day sta in a boat (an complr ment to the Nile, he lays aside his chariot here), and steers through

“THE CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES.” 289

the hours of day and night, each of the latter being distinguished by a star The whole circumstance of ancient Egyptian life, with all its vicissitudes, may be read 1n pictures ont of the-s extraordinary tombs, from the birth, through all the joys and sorrows of hfe, to the death , the lamentation ove: the corpse, the embulmer’s opera- tions, and, finally, the judgment and the immortality of the soul.” 1

These royal vaults are kuown to the guides hy numbers mercly. One which is scldom visited possesses pecutiar interest to Biblical students, and is numbered fifteen. Ac- cording to Mr. J. A. Paine, an American Eyvptologist, who has written a suggestive and well-aryued uticle in the “Century,” this tomb was prepared ior Soti H., the first- horn son of the Pharaoh of the Oppression, who died in the last plague of the Egyptians. Though Seti Il. is reckoned among the Egyptian sovercigns, records seem to prove that he sat on the throne with his father, so this need not upset Mr Paime’s theory that Seti died m his father’s lifetime.

The above necessarily hasty and superficial glance at the more famous monuments will, perhaps, whet the appetite of the visitor for a more thorough exploration, and will at any rate help him to realise that a whole winter at Luxor would scarcely suffice to exhaust the tombs and temples ot ancient Thebes. A consideration, then, of the claims of Luxor as a winter residence may appropriately close this chapter.

A whole winter here would be especially attractive to those who recognise the fat that Thebes is not a place to be “done,” and who can appreciate the peculiar fasci- nation of Luxor,— emphatically one of those places which, In common parlance, “ grow upon you.” Here, too, one is able to see more ot the life of the people, and realise more of the native atmosphere than is possible at a popular cosmopolitan winter-city like Cairo. But apart from these esthetic considerations, the material aspect of the case

2“ The Crescent and the Cross.”

296 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

is a factor which cannot be neglected. Living at Luxor 1g comparatively cheap.

The cost of wintering in Kgypt is rather overrated, un- less this implies 1esidence at a fashionable Cairo hotd, where, if the visitor wishes to take part in the social life of the winter rcsidents, he would no doubt find Egypt an unusually expensive residence, and 1t would be a difheult feat to keep the daily expenditure below two pounds a day But the cconomical visitor, to say nothing of the mvalid, must eschew the “flesh-pots of Egypt” so far as they ale represcnted by the gaicties of this lively city, and if he makes Luxor his winter headquaiters, he will find that his three months (including journcy from England) will not cost him more than £80 or £85, that 1s, under a pound a day Let us take the items

First-class return by North German Lloyd steamers (the most moderate of the first-class steamship companies)

from Southampton and Port Sud £29 2 2 (From New York to Genoa £3. 80 first class return ) Cairo to Luxor (second-cliss rail, first ste amcr) 690 Extras on voyage, rail from Port Said to Cano, Cairo hotel, etc, say 500 Sixty days at Luxor hotel at 10s 38000 Government tax for Lgyptian temples 106 Luncheon, wine, baksheesh, donkeys, and incidentals, at 41 per week 12090 Total £83 118

No doubt this amount would suffice almost for a whole winter at a cheap Riviera pension, but a sojourn of the sante length at any extra-European winter-resort could scarcely be managed for less. The expense would be reduced

m five pounds or sıx pounds by taking one of the cheaper steamship lines to Port Said or Ismailia, such as the Anchor,’ Moss, or Papayanni; but none of these services are alto- gether satisfactory, especially the two latter, and for an

“THE CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES.” 291

invalid they are impossible. In fact, a delicate person would be more comfortable travelling second-class in one of the Orient or P. and QO. steamers. Then, another reason why Luxor is so economical a residence is that there are few opportunities for spending money in a place where there are no urban amusements. no society entertainments, no cabs, no cafés, and no shops (except for spurious antiques), and where vehicular means of locomotion are confined to donkeys, at a few piastres a day. The exploration of the temples and ruins is the one resource and recreation, and this entails no extra expenditure when once the Government tax of one hundred piastres (£1.0.6) is paid.

Bakshcesh may, perhaps, be thought a formidable item in the incidental expenditure ; but, as a matter of fact, the permanent visitors at Luxor are not usually regarded as a legitimate or valuable quarry by the natives, who confine their attentions, for the most part, to the short-time passen- gers by the tourist steamers. The amusing baksheesh stories, which form the stock of the table d’héte humourist, are generally invented, or, at all events, considerably em- bellished. Few newcomers will be spared, for instance, the time-honoured yarn of the English medical man at Luxor, who used to doctor the natives, —of course, gratuitously, — and whose patients, after being cured, used to come down on him for baksheesh, on the plea that they had taken his medicines !

The hotel accommodation is good and comfortable; but the three hotels are hardly sufficient, and are apt to be over- crowded. The largest hotel, the Luxor, is expensive; but it is a particularly well-found and even luxurious establish- ment, and may rank as a first-class house, though, of Course, it cannot compare with the palatial Cairo hotels. The cuisine reflects credit on the manager, considering the “ commissariat base” is nearly five hundred miles distant,

292 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

and that Luxor itself is but a large village. The terms here and at the Karnak are thirtcen or fifteen shillings a day, according to the season; but visitors staying at least a month are taken at twelve shillings a day. The Thew- fikieh Hotel ((raze’s) is a very comfortable house with par- ticularly moderate tariff (twelve shillings a day all through the season), and by many is preferred to the more preten- tious Hotel Luxor. For one thing, it is much quieter, and in this respect better adapted for those wintering in Egypt for health. Long-stay visitors are taken at ten shillings a day. Invalids find cvery comfort, including English doctor, English nurse and chambermaids, dairy, ete. Its one drawback is its noisiness. Four or five times a week passengers by the Nile tourist-steamers arrive and depart in throngs, and are apt to monopolise the hotel, to the dis- may of permanent visitors.

It should be mentioned that, thanks mainly to the efforts of Mr. J. M. Cook, Luxor is now a chaplaincy of the Colo- nial and Continental Church Society. There is no chemist yet at Luxor, but necessary drugs can be obtained at the Dispensary of the Native Hospital. There is a post from Cairo three days a week. The post-office is attached to the Luxor Hotel, which is a remarkably self-contained establishment.

That Luxor has a great future before it both as a health- resort and a tourist centre is indisputable. The railway, now open almost as far as Keneh (three hundred and forty miles from Cairo, and only thirty miles from Luxor), is making good progress, and will probably reach Luxor in the course of next winter. This extension will do much owards making Luxor a favourite winter-resort for in-

lids. It will also popularise it as a goal of travel among ordinary tourists, who have only a few weeks for Egypt. Hitherto the Nile trip has madc too great inroads on the time and purse of the short-time travellers. When the

“THE CITY OF A HUNDRED GATES.” 298

railway is continued to the Theban plain, it will be possible to pay a hasty visit to the unrivalled monuments of ancient Thebes and be back in the Egyptian capital within threo davs, at an outlay of not much more than a five-pound note

CHAPTER XXIII ASSOUAN AND PHILÆ

LTWEEN Thebcs and Assouin two interesting temples o1 groups of temples ue passed, — Esneh and Ldiu

Erment 18 no doubt included in the Nile itimcraries, but this modern town 1s important merely as a flourishing manufactuiing ccntic, —suzu being the chief industry, — and the antiquitics aic now nonexistent Every vestige has disappeircd of the large templc, ind the only survival of the smaller one arc a few ruincd columns

Esneh 18 a populous markct town, and the capital of the province Modiin buildings occupy the site of the ancient city of Latopolis, but tht runs of the temple, which ate not buried ın thi soil, arc catremely beautiful Like most other Ptolemaic monuments, for all thit remains 1s of Ptolemaic work, — this has becn ignored by antiquarians and the Egypt Explor tion Fund , and since Mehemet Alı cleared a part of the hypostyle hall of the temple, hardly anything has been done in the way of icstoration Yet from the elegant architecture of the columns now visible, systematic excavations and clearing away of 1ubbish would probably reveal a templc almost as beautiful as those of Denderah or Edfu

Miss Edwards’s graphic description, though written twenty years ago, apples in all essentials to the ruins as

n at the present day

‘This 1s what we see a little yard surrounded by mud walls, at the farther end of the yard, a dilapidated doorway, beyond the

doorway, a strange-looking stupendous mass of yellow limestone 204

ASSOUAN AND PHIL 296

masonry <A few steps farther, and this proves to be the carved cor- mt of a mighty temple, —a temple neither ruined nor defaced, but buried to the chin in the accumulated rubbish of a seore of centuries. Ihis part 15 evidently the poitico We stand close under a row of huye capitis The columns that support tnem are buried b ucath ur feet The ponderous cornice juts out above pur heads From th level cn which we stand tn the top of that cornie may measure ibout tweuty five feet Descending a faght ot brick steps wh h lead down t» avast ball we come to the original levi of the temple W tieid the ancient piverment Wa look up at the massive ceiling, r cessed ind sculptured and paimted lake the ec ting at Denderah M could almost beheve mdeed that we are standing in the portico ED nderah Ihe general effect and the main le itures of the plan ut the ime In some respects, however Fsnel ts even mie strik- ng Ehe columns though less u assive tha. those of Denderah, are more elegant md look loftier Ihen shts sre covcred with fig- ires * gods and emblems and huts of Ineroglyphed insc1iption, all cat ut in lowrehef Them cipitals im plice of the huge draped Wather head of Denderah are studud from natural forms — from th lotus hly the pypyrus blossom the }lumy date palm The wall sculpture however 19 mferior to that of Denderah and 1mmeasur- ly inferior to the wall sculpture at Karnak Ihe inscriptions, instead of bemg grouped wherever there happened to be space, and so producing the mehest torm of wall decor ition ever devised by mmn ue disposed in symmetiicil columns the eff t of which, when coinpared with the florid style of Kirnik 15 as the methodical ne itness of an engrossed deed to the splendid freedom of an illum- n ued manuscript

The temple ıs dedicated to Khnum or Knept, who 18 rep- 1esented as a ram with the asp between his horns, which 18 supposed to umply some idea of sovereignty over the gods, for in Roman times khnum was considerd to be identical with Jupiter The magnificent timple ot Edfu, a gem among Ptolemaic monuments, has already been noticed, wıth the other famous shrines of the Ptolemies, in the pre- ceding chapter.

Assouan hes some one hundred and forty miles south of Luxor; but the scenic conditions are very dissimilar, and the immediate surroundings are more picturesque than

296 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

those of ancient Thebcs Instead of a fertile plain stretch ing for miles on either side of the Nile, the river narrows, a mile or so above Assouan, to a gorge hemmed ın by stu pendous granite walls, which mark the approach to the First Cataract Ihc town stands well abuve the Nile, and has a decided!) imposing appcirance from the river, the banks bemz hned with Government buildings, several handsome hotels and luge shops = Lhe 11vcr front 1s, m deed, rathcr too luropcan looking to please the asthetic tourist, but the Oriental notc 1s provided by an occasional minaict toweling above the modern white buildings, and by the groves of palm trass and acacias which surround the town

Assouan, unlike Luxor, has few remains of the extinct civilisation of Leypt, most of the antiquities being late Roman or Sariccnic and resided with little respect by Egy ptologists who ai apt to be 1 little mtolc. int of all ruins of liter dite than the Ptolumics Ihc town, how evur, offers many pots of mtcrcst to the traveller of wider sympithics than the diy asdust antiquary The student of astronomy will no doubt 1¢amcember that the Ptolemaic astionomeis, crioncously supposing Assouan to be exactly on the Tropic of ( incer, carried out here their calculations for mcasurme the caith,! while to classical students it will be of interest w an important frontier city of the Romans, and Juvcnal» place of exile, whence he wrote many of his Satires

To come to oui own days, Assouan will soon be a fa vounte goal of cngincers and suicntifie men as the site of the greatest engineering entcrpiise, after the Suez Canal, ever carricd out in Egypt it 1» here that the great bar-

1 Strabo as is well known says that in a certain well the sup at the summer solstice shone direct without casting a shadow The site of this well cannot be located which causes some scientists to throw doubt on the accuracy of Strabo s story espocially as the actual tropic is a few miles farther south, between Phil# and Kalabsheh

ASSOUAN AND PHILA 297

rage of Upper Egypt ıs to be built — a greater structure than the huge dam in the Delta, which for so many ycars proved a“ white elephant” to the Egyptian Government in spite of the agitation sct on foot by Kgvptologists who natwally feared that the Phila temples would be sub- meized by the utificial Jake which would ky created ITowcver, every precaution against injury to thes Inonu- ments will be taken by the Government Besides, as em- banking and damming the Nilt at Assouan 1s estnuated to macase the amount of crops in Egypt to mne temes their J esent yuld, 1t i9 probable that, m any casi purely scnti- nental and tsthc tic reasons would not have been allowed to stand in the way of this cnormous materal benefit to the country At the risk of being thought 1 devil’s ad- vocat, I cannot help protesting agunst the conventional cuckuo cry of vandilism so often rused by the superficial tourist to carn à cheap reputation for culture In such a qustion the welfare of the Cgyptian people should be the first consideration, and, is has been clearly demonstrated, the gun to a poverty-stricken and overtaxed population would be almost incalculable

Assouan has some claim to be considered a potential heualth-:csort Its climate, cxccpt im the late spring months, 18 superior, perhaps, «ven to that of Lusor In Apul and May, owing, no doubt. to its shut-m situation, it 15, however, too hot to make a suitable or pleasant resi- dinee for invalids, — in tact, some observers Lave made its average temperature higher even than that of Wady Halia, Which is well within the tropics Up to April, however, the clunatic conditions are not surpassed by those of any place on the Nile

Though the undcmiable excellence of the chmate of Assouan, for the greater part of the Egyptian season for forcigners, has been generally admitted by medical men, hitherto its comparative difficulty and costhness of access,

298 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

and the great popularity of its rival, Luxor, have stood in the way of its development as an invalid station Tts sıtu ation 18 superior hy gicnically to that of Luxor The latter is only a tuw fect above the Nile, and unde: water for a part of the ycar, while Assouan is beyond the reach of the annual inundition his, of course, mininuscs the risk of malarial fuver Then, to a ccrtain extent, Luxor suffcrs fiom those factitious diawhachs which make Cairo so il suited as a wintcr residence for the health sceker, as dis tinct fiom the mae sun worshuppa Luxor, indeed like tbat cosmopolitan wint ı city 1s decidcdly gay and fashion able during the height of the season, and altogethcr too noisy and crowded for delicate people The Nile banks are hned with dahabiychs, lavishly dccoratcd with flow e14 and bunting, and it mght zlowiny with hundieds of Chinese lanterns ani fairy lumps These brillant llumi nitions, tht crowds of twhionable visitors thronzing the dicks of these pleasure cratt: the twanzing of the universal mind olin or binjo may ycrhaps suzzcst to the correspond ents of soc ty journils in Arbin Nights’ Fairy land, but to the ordiniry visit cverything is unplcasantly rem miscent of Henlcy Re zatta, with dahibiychs for house boats and tounst stuamcrs for stam laumches At all cvents, there 18 somethin, bizarre and startling in the con trast afforded by the xrm ind solemn Theban temples which form the background to this scene of fashionable reveliy

Assouan, though the farthest outpost of mvahd colonisa tion m Egypt, and situated some sii hundred miles from the capital, 1s fairly wcll provided with what English resi ents in foreign wateling-places regard as necessities of fe, including a first-class but expensive, hotel, a resident English doctor and chaplain, British vice-consul, post- office (three deliveries a week), telegraph-office, etc In short, though at present but an incipient health-resort, and

ASSOUAN AND PHILE 299

owing to the cost of* the journey and the hgh hotel charges (there being only one first-class hotel, the pro- prictor can hardly be blamed for cxercising the tyranny of a monopoly) practically confined to the richer class i in- valid visitors, Assouan has 1 futwe Waith the completion of the rulway, which will enable the journey from Cairo to be pertormed in less than halt the tame and at less than halt the cost of the present combined rail and mail steamer service, an assuicd position as a Climatic health 1 sort may be predicted for it, and a few veats will probably see a luge mvalid colony cstablished heic

lt 18 not improbable that some time during the course of the scasun of 1897-8 the railway will reach Asgouan, in- tended as the joint terminus of the Upper Nile and Soudan Rulways Considerable progress has already been made m thi construction of the former railway, which has now rauhed as far as kench, some forty miles north of Luxor Now thit the Nile has been crossed at Nagh Hamad, the ‘ontmuation of the Assouan scction offers littl difficulty to the engineers As for the Soudan Miltary Railway, the Wady Half. and Berber section 1s now fimshed as far 13 Kirma, at the Thud Catiaet, only twenty miles north of Dongola

Perhaps Mr Cecil Rhodes’s fond dream of a trans-conti- ncntal railway from Cairo to Cape Town 1s not such a wild ind visionary project after all Who knows but that, in the dim and distant tuture, Nubia, with its incomparable climate, will replace the Riviera or Algeria as the world’s ficat winter sanatorium ? !

Nine out of ten visitors to Assouan are, however, quite indifferent as to the merits or demerits of the place as an valid station, and therefore we will proceed to vimt its

1 These obaervations on the future of Assouan are taken from an article enti tled Assouan a Potential Health Resort,” which I recently contributed to an English review

800 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

lions The chief objccts of interest, next to the beautiful Island of Philw, are the famous rock-tombs, the ancient quarries, and thc Cataract

The tombs, which, according to the absurd practice that prevuls in Egypt of labelling remains after the name of the discovcrer, are popularly known as Grenfell s Tombs, have only been partially cxplored These sock shrines werc eac iy itcd in the clits of the western bank of the Nile by Gencril Gicnfdll in 1887 In somi respects they resemble the tombs of Beni Hissan but it 15 only at Assouan that we xe traces of the stuking methods of transporting the bodies of the dead =It 1s 1 kind of shde cut out from the fice of the almost perpendicular cliff, and on cach side are remuins of the st ps for the bearers who drew up the mummy fiom the rivet

The most striking tomb 15 thit of Ra Nub ko Necht (Amen Im Hit II), 1 sovercign of the twelfth dynasty but 1¢ 18 gencruly —pcrhaps excusably, im view of the cumbrous design ition of its tinint— known as Grenfclls Tomb The enti ince to this tomb 18 impressive, from the startling contrasts and perhaps was intended to produce 4 dramatic effect on tht spectator

“Thc gloomy entrincc, with its great, rough hewn square columns and its mysterious side aisles, unrclicved by a ray of light or a scrap of carving, lcads to a squait doorway some thirty fecf from the entrance, which it di rectly faces A nariow passa m» then cntercd At the very end, with the daylight strcaminy in full and cleat upon it, i» the shrine which bears tht portraits of the sov ereign and his family The passage by which you reach ıt 1s unspeakably ımpressıve On cithe: side are three deep Wehes in the dark walls Before you yawns an apparently bottomless pit Lach of the niches 1s seen to contain an upright mummy, which gazes at you with sad eyes as you pass by These six sepulchral figures are carved ın stone

ASSOUAN AND PHILZE 801

and coloured, and form an appropriate line of sentinels, to the entrance of the inner tomb”

scarcely a mile from the town are the fomous granite quairicg of Syene, from which was hewn the stonc for most of the famous obelisks and other monoliths of the euly Lgvptian kings In fact, certain mscriptions show thit even in the sixth dynasty stone was quarrved herc for kyyptian temples and sircophagn An ob lish entirely de- tached on three sides fiom thc roe! , nearly one hundred fret in length, may be sten zn eeu, as will as unfinished

tumns, sarcophisi, ctu, which show that Syeno in the time of the Pharaohs was not only a quarry, but what we sh nld nowad ys describe 13 2 monumental mason’s stone- vard = It is particululy imtecresting to sec actual traces of the workmen’s mcthods of cutting out an obclisk en bloc from the solid rock A row of holes was bored along the whole Icngth of the proposed obelisk, into which wooden wedges were driven Water was afterwards poured on the wedges, when the swellins would crack the stone and sep- nite it from the mass of rock It was then roughly dressed at the quarries, hauled to the “ile upon a sledge run on rollers, and then floated down to its destination on v barge The fact that even now engineers, although aided by all the 1esources of science, would not be likely to Improve upon the methods (teste the removal of Cleopatra’s Needle) of some four thousand or fiye thousand years ago, if they wished, for mstance, to transport the one remaining obelisk, affords food fo: reflection

The Island of Phile ıs the chiet feature of interest at Assouan Though a mere rock, barely a quarter of a mile long, 1t 18 thickly covered with ruins of Ptolemaic temples and monuments, and 1s, perhaps, the “ most beautiful, as well as the smallest, historic island ın the world” The scenery about here 1s very striking and impressive. In fact, “The Approach to Phile” has been rendered almost

363 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHs.

as familiar to the armchair traveller, by means of innumer- able sketches, as the Pyramids or the Sphinx.

The most striking monument in the island is the beaut- ful Temple of Isis, one of the finest specimens of archi- tecture the Ptolemies have bequeathed to Egypt. For picturesqueness of form and surroundings this magnificent temple cannot be equalled by any of the innumerable ruins of ancient Thebes. Its chicf features are the Great Col- onnade of thirty-two columns,and the massive towers of the Pylon, each one hundred and twenty feet wide and sixty feet high. The capitals of the noble façade of lofty columns are all of different patterns. Traces still remain of the vivid and varied colouring ; for, according to the canons of art then prevailing, the shafts and capitals were painted. There are other courts and colonnades in the Temple, which, like the Great Temple of Karnak, seems rather a congeries of temples than onc single building. The walls are covered with sculptures in low-relief. ‘ Imagine walls,” says the author of “ The Crescent and the Cross.” “ whose height it wearies the eye to measure, all covered with gigantic hieroglyphics, where gods and warriors seem to move self-supported betwecn earth and sky ; then groves of columns, whose girth and height would rival those of the most corpulent old oak-trees, with capitals luxuriant as a cauliflower, and gleaming with bright enamel of every hue in heaven ; every pillar and every wall so thickly cov- ered with hieroglyphics, that they seem clothed with 4 petrified tapestry.”

Another beautiful ruin is the Temple of Osiris, which, like the Palace of Charles V. in the Alhambra, never possessed a roof. It is rather absurdly known to tourists ify Pharaoh's Bed, so called because of a fancied resem- blance to a colossal four-post bedstead.

The island is thickly strewn with ruins of other temples, dedicated either to Isis, Osiris, or Horus, the tutelary triad

ASSOUAN AND PHILA. 808

of the island. In fact Phile was the last refuge of this cult, a Greek inscription showing that these gods were worshipped here as late as 453 4.»., more than seventy years after the heathen religion was formally abolished uw Keypt by Theodosius’s famous decree. A portion of the Temple of Isis was converted into a Coptic ‘area! wards the end of the sixth century. To this peas oa dRe a strange mingling of the Egyptian and Chistian faiths. For instance, Isis was represented as the tutelary deity of Saint John and Saint Paul. Even the shape of the bishop’s mitre is considered by antiguarians to he directly horrowed trom the characteristic horns of Osiris, as, according to tra- dition, Athanasius wished by this means to propitiate the Egyptians.

The First Cataract begins a little to the south of As- houan, and extends for several miles, Phila marking the commencement. Cataract, as we understand the word, is, of course, a misnomer; it is actually a series of rapids. In fact, it is only at Low Nile, which is the off season of tourists, that the falls can be said to deserve the name of Cataract. Though the description of the awful charac- ter of this Cataract given by ancient writers is absurdly exaggerated, and may be relegated to the order of “ travel- lers’ tales,” the feat of descending it is sufficiently exciting, though it is a somewhat costly amusement. The scenery, however, of the Nile at this point is grand and wild in the extreme, and no visitor should omit to get the full benefit of it by climbing one of the cliffs of the banks just above Philee.

CHAPTER XXIV. FROM THE FIRS] TU 1HE SFCOND CATARACT.

Here Desolation heeps unbroken sabbath,

*Mid caves and temples, palaces and sepulchres, Ideal images in sculptured forms,

Thoughts hewn mn columns, or in caverned hull, In honour of their deities and ot their dead

MONTGOMERY

EW tourists, compared with the crowds who throng the luxurious steamers to Luxor and Assouan, continue the voyage to Wady Halia hy the unpretentious little stern- wheeler which runs weekly with the mails between the First and Second Cataracts ln fact, those who make this voyage may be considered to have graduated fiom the rank of tourist to that of traveller The desolation of the banks and the absence of animal life, to say nothing of the infe- rior interest of the antiquitics south of Assouan, make the voyage, short as it is, — for the whole expedition only takes a week, — rather monotonous to the ordinary tourist.

The geographical features of Nubia are very different from those of the country south of Assouan; in fact, Nubia might be in another continent. Instead of a richly culti- vated plain extending for many miles on either side of the Nile, the bleak sandstone hills which abut_on the desert

me near the river, and the cultivated country, varying in

readth from a few hundred yards to a few miles, extends,

a narrow palm-fringed strip, along either bank of the Nile.

On the western bank there stretches beyond this sparsely 304

THE FIRST TO THE SECOND CATARACT. 805

cultivated littoral a savage and illimitable desert, while on the opposite side of the rapidly-flowing, coffee-coloured iver an equally desolate wilderness is bounded only by the distant Red Sea. In the following description by Mr. Conan Doyle, the wild note of the scenery is very graph- ically presented:

«Between these two huge and barren expanics, Nubia writhes hike a green sand-worm along the course ot the mver Here and there it disappears altogether, and the Nile rungs Ix tween black and sun-crached hills, with the orange drift-sand lying like glaciers in their valleys. Everywhere one sees traces ol vanished races and ul merged ervilisations Grotesque graves dot the hills or stand up wgamet the sky-line,— pyramidal graves, tumulus graves, rock Javes, — everywhere graves And, occasionally, as the boat rounds 1 rocky pomt, one sees a deserted city up above,— houses, walls, battlements, —with the gun shining through the empty window squares Sometimes you learn that it has been Roman, sometimes }gyptian, sometimes all record of 1ts name or origin has been abso- lutcly lost There they stand, these grim and silent cities, and up on the hills you can see the graves of their people, hke the port- holes of a man-of-war Its through this weird, dead country that the tourists smoke and gossip and flirt as they pass up to the Egyp- tian frontier.”

To the traveller accustomed to the never-ending proces- sion of villages which stud the Nile banks between Cairo and Luxor, Nubia seems almost uninhabited. The vege- tation is too spaise to support a large population, and the mainstay of life of the Nubians is the date-palm, instead of barley and rice. Every palm-tree, as 18 the olive-trec in Italy, is registered and heavily taxed.

In the two hundred miles’ voyage between the First and Second Cataracts there is, however, one monument of su- perlative interest; namely, the famous rock-temple of Abu ‘Simbel (called by an older generation of travellers, Ipsam- boul), which in point of antiquarian interest is only sec- ond to the Pyramid field of Ghizeh and the Theban temples.

806 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

This unique 1uin, in which some ancient race has hollowed out a vast shrine in the mountain as if 1t were a cheese, deserves a stay of several days, especially as the other ruins are nearly ill of Ptolemaix o:1 Roman origin There 18 no doubt that the travell(r, who has already explored Memphis and Thebes, and contemplated the very oldest buildings which the hands ot man have fashioncd, 1s naturally apt to regard with languid interest templis and tombs which ate scarcely older than the Christian c11 But the won de:ful roch-hewn temple of Abu Simbcl will claim the at- tention of every tiaveller, however much he my be sated with the magnificent temples of Thebes and Karnak In- dced, 1f it werc the only goal of this extended Nile trp, the voyage would be well worth the time and expense

The temple was bult by Rimeses the Gicat as a memo- mal of Ins victory over the khiti m Syrii, —a racc con sidered by some historians, but on doubtful authority, to be identical with the Hittites The tomple 1s hewn out of the solid roch, the castern face, fronting the Nile, having becn cut away, forming thc most impressive and striking temple front m the world In this stupendous façade fou: colossal statucs, seated on thioncs, stand out in bold rehef fach figure 1c¢presents Ramcees, and 1s some sixty-six fect high, without rechoning the }x destal, and “the faces, which are fortunatcly well piescived, evince a beauty of eapres- sion the more striking as it 18 unlookcd for in statues of such dimensions

An amusing incident in connection with these colossi 18 related by Miss Edwards in he: “ A Thousand Miles up the Nile,” —a record of travel which now deservedly ranks as @piassic The face of one had been disfigured by plaster left when a cast was taken for the British Museum, 80 Miss Edwards set her boatmen to work to clean the stoné by scraping off the lumps of plaster The subsequent process—namely, tinting the white patches left, where the

THE FIRST TO THE SECOND CATARACT. 807

plaster was removed, with coffee—may be open to objec- tion on the part of archsologists.

Some years ago, owing to overhanging masses of rock, these colossi were threatened with destruction. This was averted by sume very skilful engineering on the part of Captain Johnston, R. E. The task was rendered especially difficult, as no explosives could be used because the vibra- tion would probably have toppled over these titanic statues. One over-hanging rock weighed no less than two hundred and seventy tons. “Five stout iron cables were placed round the big block, and then it was broken up into small pieces, and thrown down into the sand. Rameses may now sit in peace, and watch the dawn break over the desert for another three thousand years. The two colossi which are out of balance are to be pinioned back to the rock behind by iron bands; the bands will be disguised as much as possible, but one regrets that a more dignified method of support for Pharaoh could not be devised.” !

The entrance to the temple had been for thousands of years hermetically sealed by the drifting sands of the desert, till discovered by Belzoni, in 1817, i

« A vast and gloomy hall, such as Eblis might have given Vathek audience in, receives you 1n passing from the flaming sunshine into that shadowy portal. It is some time before the eye can ascertain its dimensions through the imposing gloom; but gradually there reveals itself, aronnd and above you, a vast aisle, with pillars formed of eight colossal giants upon whom the light of heaven has never shone. These images of Osiris are hacked by enormous pillars, behind which run two great galleries, and in these torchlight alone enabled us to peruse a series of sculptures in relief, representing the triumphs of Rameses the Second, or Sesostris. The painting, which once enhanced the effect of these spirited representations, is not dimmed, but crumbled away; where it exists, the colours are as vivid am ever.” 2

1 Cook’s Handbook for Egypt. 3 Eliot Warburton.

308 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

To the historian Abu-Simbel 1s mainly of importance as containing a long chronicle in stone of Rameses the Great, in which he desczibes at Icngth the great work he has carried out in his temple at Thebes Here is also in sciibed the history in great dctail of the king’s famous campaign in Asia = This he evidently « onsidci1ed his gieat est militay achievemcnt, for 1t 19 nsciibcd also at great length on thc walls of the Thchan Ramisseum, and at Abydos These stone iccords, which are virtuiuly a serics of official despitchcs, form a kind of argumint to a mig nificcnt series of painted sculptuics repicsenting battle scencs, ind arc written with all the tcrscness and precision of a modcin official piCcis

If possible, the tumplc should be explored at sunrisc, when the sun’s 1ays, shining diurcctly through the entrance, hight up the int rior with 1 wonderful ¢ fect

A smaller temple, also hcwn out of the rock, 1s about fifty yards fiom the Gicat Temple It ıs dedicated to Hathor, who 15 sy mboliscd in the interior under the form of a cow This tample is, howevcr, of infciior interest, and might be regarded in rclation to Rameses’s great shrine as a “lady chapel” just as the third small temple, dis covered in 1871, may be lookhcd upon as a chapel of case Forty miles farther south les the important fortified post of Wady Halfa, a hind of “breakwater of barbarism,” which till 1896 formed the southern frontier of the Khe dive’s dominions !

It has occasionally been found necessary, owing to the disturbed state of the country and the hostility of the der- vishes, to furnish the post-steamers and steam dahabiyehs —gailing dahabiyehs were not allowed beyond the Fist Ca#¥aract — sailing beyond Assouan with a mulitary escort This escort, which gave a flavour of romantic adventure to

2 At the time of writing (May 1897) the frontier post is at Merawi beyond Dongola

THE FIRST TO THE SECOND CATARACT 809

the commonplace Nile voyage, was especially necessary for tourists exploring the Abu-Simbel Temple and the Pulpit Rock of Abusir, each party of tourists used to be accom- panied by a corporal’s guard of Soudanese soldiers, who carried out then duties with a conscicntiousness which was rathe: embarassing, and not a little irmtating when the novelty had worn off This escort was not, of course, intunded as a defence against a raid of dervishes, for the proximity of the Wady Halfa garnson removed all danger of in open attack on tiavellers, gut the authoritics counted moe on its moral effect in preventing wndependent cxcur- sions on the part of :ash travellers who might be inclined to pooh-pooh any idca of danger from the disaffected der- vishcs Besides, there was no doubt a certam msk of buizandage on the part of stiay dervishes, for the move- ments of travellers were known days beforehand, and in the case of tounsts under the charge of tourist agencies, freely advertised

It may be mentioned that the famous novelist, Conan Doyk, has recently utilised the suggestion ot exciting adven- tuic afforded by these precautions of the military author- ticks in 2 thrilling story of modcrn adventur, in which he describes the experiences of a party of English tourists attacked by dervishcs at Abusir !

The one lhon of Wady Halfa ıs the famous Pulpit Rock of Abusir, with the mcomparable view of the Nile and the Libyan desert Thus rock is a veritable “ visitors’ list ” in stone, and the nam: of almost every traveller of note has been inscribed here The dragoman firmly believes that Moses’s*name might once have been secn among the graven autographs! He 1s, however, careful to add, in order to take the wind out of the sails of the sceptical tounst, that

»ıt has long becn worn away At all events, the names of

1 This decidedly up to-date novel of adventure was running as a serial in the Strand Magazine during 1897

810 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

Belzoni, Burckhardt, Warburton, and other famous travel- lers are to be seen there high up on the rock, and still higher, Gordon’s.

Stern critics may, perhaps, be inclined to deprecate this habit of trying to impress one’s own trivial personality on these immortal rocks, but it appears that for some reason it is considered almost praiseworthy at Abusir. Even the severe Murray gravely declares that “custom sanctions here, aS innocent and not without a certain interest of its own, a practice which good taste and common sense alike condemn most strongly when indulged in to the injury of priceless monuments of antiquity and works of art.” The distinction is a subtle one; and without arro- gating to myself the office of the tourists’ censor morum, I fail to see much difference between cutting one’s name on the apex of the Gieat Pyramid, which every traveller of taste would strongly deprecate, and inscmbing it on the Livre des Voyageurs of the cliff of Abusir.

There are few views which impress the spectator as does the grand prospect from the semicircular platform which forms the šummit of the rock. Looking down on one side is the sunless and eddying Nile, studded with black shining rocks, dividing the river into endless channels, — these being the rapids known as the Second Cataract; the east- ern bank is a wild jumble of black rocks and boulders, the débris brought down in high flood. The absence of any sign of habitation intensifies the sensation of wild desola- tion and awful grandeur. In the distance, too, misty blue mountains conceal Dongola, some one hundred and fifty miles south. Turning round and looking westwird, the riew is even more impressive. Again I borrow Dr. Conan Doyle's admirable bit of word-painting :

* «It was a view which, when once seen, must always haunt the

mind. Such an expanse of savage and unrelieved desert might be part of some cold and burned-out planet, rather than of this fertile

THE FIRST TO THE SECOND CATARAC?. 811

and bountiful earth. Away and away it stretched, to die into a soft, violet haze in the extremist distance. In the foreground the sand was of a bright golden yellow, which was quite dazzling in the sunshine; but beyond this golden plain lay a low line of those black slag-heaps, with yellow sand-valléys winding between them. These ın their turn were topped by higher and more fantastic hills, and these by others, peeping over each other’s shoulders until they blended with that distant violet haze. None of these hills were of any height, —a few hundred feet at the most, — but their savage, saw toothed crests, and their steep scarps of sun-baked stone, gave them a fierce character of their own.”

A few miles south of Abu Sir, some excavations, cleverly executed by a detachment of English engineers under Major Lyons, have brought to light an interesting temple of respectable antiquity even for Egypt. Jt is at least as old as the eighteenth dynasty, for inscriptions prove that it was restored by Thotmes III. This monarch’s name, it will be noticed, appeared in stele and other inscriptions more frequently than that of any other sovereign, not even excepting the name of Rameses the Great.

CHAPTER XXV RECFNT EGYPIOLOGI( AL DISCOV FRIES

HE most ımportant fields of research of the Egypt Exploration Fund (the leading Kgy ptological Society of Great Britain and America), since 1890, have becn Dar- El-Bahan (Thebes) and Bem-Hassan Several scasons’ continuous work was devoted to these temples and the Bem-Hassan Tombs The oper itions of this society are characterised by great thoroughness and scicntific zeal, and are conducted with an elaborated conscientiousncss which is not always appreci- ated at its full value by the ordinary tourist, who 18 naturally inclined to give gicitcr ercdit to the more prac facal and less technical cxploritions of the Egy ptological Departincnt of the Cgyptian Government But the aims of these two bodies are different The Egypt Exploration Fund 18 a purcly scientific soci ty It 1s supported by ar- cheologists and antiquarians, and their rescarches are under- taken for the benefit of Egy ptologsts rather than Egyptian travellers and students, and the c\haustive reports the society publishes annually are learned monographs, “ cavi- are to the general,” rather than popular descriptive hand- books Yet harmonious relations are preserved between the two bodies, of which the Egypt Exploration Fund may be reck- ond the pioneer. The latter gives prominence to re- searches and excavations of sites likely to prove of scientific interest, while the Government Department $12

RECENT EGYPTOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES 313

chiefiy devotes 1ts attention to preservıng and restoring the famous monuments and temples whıch attract the ordinary visitor

During the last four winters the Exploration Fund have been cairying on extensive eacavations at Thebes, with the view of thoroughly clearing out the wonderful Temple of Quecn Hatasu In the chapter on Ancient Thebes and its Monuments this temple 1s briefly referred to, but this account may be supplemented by the admirable and succinct desuription of M Naville, who was responsible for the excavations

There 13 no other kgyptian temple known to us which 1s built on a rising succession oi platforms and we are theretore without comparisons for ow) suid ance 1n seeking to ascertain how the archi tcct wis led to the adoption of this scheme To some extent ıt may have been suggested to him by th nature of the site at his disposal, and by the huge steps in which the 10ck of the foundations descends to the plain What was thc distinctive use of each of the three platforms on which the temple was built? Our excavations have proved that the lowest plitto:m was treated as the garden, or rather the orchards of the temple and that the trees planted ın ıt were ar- tificially watered But the central and inost extensive of the plat- forms — on the one side wbutting agaist the cliffs, and on the othey, supported by a decorated ret uning wall—scemed to have been clear space, and may be considered as corresponding to the spacious colonnaded courts preceding the sanctuaries in temples of both Pha- raohs and Ptolemies ’

Neither have we any certainty as to the proposed use of the four unfinished chambers opening on to the colonnade on the northern side of the middle platform. Like the lateral chambers at Denderah and Edfu, they may have been intended as storerooms for the incense and sacred oils, and for the garments and numerous utensils necessary to performing the various rites of the complicated Egyptian ritual. Or, like the court of the altar of Harmakhis, they may have been sanctuaries, dedicated to the cult of divin-

814 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

ities more especially worshipped in other parts of Egypt. But the more plausible supposition 1s, that they were meant to be funerary chapels tor membeis of the queen’s family

Again, the similarity of Da:-Ll-Bahar to a Greek temple 18 striking, especially to the visitor coming from the Ram- esseum, when first he catches sight of the long row of white columns at the base of the rock on the noith sidc This impression 1s borne out, not only by the often noticed resemblance betwccn the fluted columns of Hatasu and those of the Done ordcr, but still more by a considera- tion of certain architectural pi opo: tions, and of the relations betwcen column and architrave

At Dar El-Bahan nothing 18 on 1 gigintic scale, and ıt seems to me that when the [egyptians turncd aside from the style which was herc applied so sueccssfully, in fa- your ot the missive architecturc of Kammak and Mcdinet Abou, they deviated from the path winch would have led them to clegance, and prefceiicd the majestic and the colossal

Tourists will be glad to hear that the clearing of this beautiful structure 18 now completed, and that every part of the temple 1s visible Many imtcresting discoveries of sculptures and paintings were made, among them some of the missing fragments of the famous series of sculptures portraying the Punt expedition of Queen Hatasu These rather point to the probability that the goal of this expe- dition was not, as 15 usually supposed, a part of Asia, but that Punt was a portion of Africa

It has always been a moot point with Egyptologists as to the manner in which the obelisks were transported from Ass@an quarries to the ancient cities of the Delta. A remarkable discovery of a series of sculptures at Queen Hatasu’s Temple by M Naville clears up ths disputed question The obelisk was placed on a huge flat-bottomed

RECENT EGYPTOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES. 315

raft or barge, and this unwieldy craft, one hundred and twenty cubits long, was furnished with two pairs of rudders. In all probability the season of high Nile was chosen for the transport of an obelisk, when not only would the navi- gation be easier, but the monolith could be brought in the barge nearer to the temple where it was to be erected. The barge itself was merely a receptacle for the obelisk, and was towed by three parallel groups of ten boats, each group being connected with the barge by a thick cable. In the sculptures the rowers are represented on one side only; but. if we suppose there were the same number on each side, there would be thirty-two oarsmen for each boat. If we add the reises, the officers, and the helmsmen, we have a grand total for this flotilla, which conveyed an obelisk from Upper Egypt to the Delta, of over one thousand men !

But the most valuable work of the Egypt Exploration Fund within recent years has been the exhaustive archxo- logical survey of the famous rock-tombs of Beni-Hassan. The results of this stupendous undertaking, in which thousands of wall sculptures and inscriptions were con- scicntiously transcribed and translated, supplemented and explained by an cnormous number of plans, diagrams, and “ squeezes,” are to be found in the magnum opus of the society, which consists of four folio volumes. Natu- rally, such a work is only likely to be seriously read by students; but ordinary travellers, who are about to visit these remarkable tomhs, will do well to consult these eru- dite and beautifully illustrated works.

Pre?ious to 1883, when the Egypt Exploration Fund was founded, the historical value of many important dis- coveries had been considerably discounted, owing to the haphazard manner in which excavations and archeological researches had been undertaken ; and this carelessness must be attributed to the insufficient supervision of the native

316 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

diggers by the Cano Museum authorities, who, in most sites, had the monopoly of icscaich For instance, the most valuable objects discovered near Abydos some thirty years ago were cited off wholesale to Cairo without any record being kept of the position o1 thc circumstances in which they were found It 1s to be feared that consular agents, who ın the diys of Ismail were httle more than “protected” dealcis, are as responsible for this waste of the piccious rchcs of ancient |} zyptian civilisation as art the 1esular devci1s and unscrupulous curio hunting travel leis

For instince, in the wondcrful and almost scnsitional discovers of Marictte, certainly the most zealous nd m defatigable explorer md exci itor of all workers in the ficld of I zyptological rcscuch thc was a frightful waste of seicntific maternal The results n>» doubt were mag nificent, as the most casual mspection cf the galleries in the Cano Museum clearly shows but there 15 no doubt that the excavations were conducted ma decidedly unscientific and unnithodic il manner, the only um bany to gct the “finds transported as quickly as possible ta the Cano Museum, only the most hasty and suyerficial notes bomg made on the spot Within icccnt years excvating his becn carried on more intellizcntly, with a greater appre clation of the vilue of cach 1ccoid, and with accurate cat lozuing, without which the most impoitant discoveries from the devler’s point of view have httle valuc in the cye of scholars and archaologists

The discoveries at Naukratis, an ancient Greek settle ment of the seventh century B © ire of peculiar ihterest to ait students This ancicnt site is just beyond the native village of Neqrash (evidently a corruption of the ancient name), a few miles fromm Tel El Barud, a station on the Cairo and Alexandria Railway Researches here have shown us the life of the early Greek settlers, who founded

RECLNT EGYPTOLOGICAL DISCOVERIZS. © 817

the city in the time of Psammetikos, about 660 8 c. The place was of great commercial importance till the mse of Alexandria eclipsed its fame. Professor Petrie brought away from the mounds of rubbish a large collection of Grek vases and statuettes, many of which can now be «en in the British Museum.

Another important work by Professor Petrie was the identification of the site of Pithom, the famous tieasure-city which the Israelites built for Rameses the Great, in the mounds of Tel-El-Maskhuta in the Wady Tamilat

One of the most startling discoveries ın the whole field of Egyptian research was that of the Temple of Sneferu, the first king of thc fourth dynasty, and the oldest sovereign of whom any remains are known. This was discovered buried some forty feet beneath the sui face, by the accumulation of desert sand and rubbish of several thousand ycats, close to the famous “False Py1amid” of Medum, itsclf the very oldest dated monu- ment ın Egypt

An estraordinary circumstance in the discovery of this almost prehistoric temple was that it was found absolutely perfect, and even the roof was entire and uninjured.

“ The chances against the oldest dited temple ın the world being quite uninjured,” remarks Professor Pctrie “might seem beyond hope, yet strangely, 1t stuliemains Of course it needed to be very fully buried again to preserve it from destruction by the present natives, and it is*much to be hoped that 1t will not be uncovered until better security 1s insured for Egyptian monuments The priceless early tombs, near the Pyramids, have been battered to pieces where the boys can reach, and blocks taken away for build- ing, thus destroying some of the finest sculptures known, and though these were all carefully buned to prevent injary a few years ago, some traveller has ruthlessly uncovered them again for destruo- tion Nothing can be left exposed in Egypt, it must be either deeply buried or else removed to a museum, if not constantly

"S18 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

guarded The Pyramid can be easily visited from Waita station, about five miles distant.”

Tel-El-Amarna, some fifty miles north of Assiout, is the site of several interesting discoveries. The great tem- ple of the “heretic king,’ Khu-En-Aten, was discovered by Lepsius, and systematically explored and described by Professor Petrie, during the winter of 1891-2. The tame of Tel-El-Amarna as a field of research dates from the finding of the famous cuneiform inscriptions, of which a short account has already been given in the chapter de- scribing the principal antiquities from Cairo to the First Cataract.

«There, besides the well known tombs, a large, painted pavement of the palace has been found in this ancient town, and 1t 18 now well preserved in a building, and accessible to visitors Lhe mter- est in it lies in the naturalistic style of the punting, and the link in taste and design which 1t shows to the Myhenaan Greek work In the rubbish heaps of the palace waste were found fragments of many hundreds of prehistoric Greck vases, of the .Nizean’ style, apparently all of Rhodian and Cypriote souices, sug,¢sting that they came by way of the Syrian coast, whereas, the .Lgean vases of this same age, from Gurob, belong to the Peloponnesian forms, pointing to a trade along the Afzican shores ‘The mass of remains, in a place which was only occupied for twenty or thirty years, gives the most certain dating of this style in Greece to the four- teenth century B C, and thus fixes an epoch in the prehistory of Europe ”

Side by side with the more scientific work of archeolog- ical research undertaken by the Egypt Exploration Fund is the equally important, but more mechanical, work of the Egyptian Government, which is mainly confined “to the oe of rubbish or unearthing the buried portions of

e great monuments and temples of the Upper Nile, which may be considered as the great “show” places for travellers and tourists. The Karnak and Philæ temples have been for many years the sıte of extensive excavations, nearly all

RECENT EGYPTOLOGION pteohyanim FEY

the money from the Tounst Fand bemg devoted to the work The Phils temples herve now been completely cleared, and the able and thorough manner in whioh the work has been done under Captain Lyon’s saperintendetes

may be seen from the following extract fcom Crousis. last report

The débris has been carefully removed from the whole of the area enclosed by the two colonnades ap weli aa from tho pana to the south of the colonnades The ate of a temple of Avigusten the north of the island and a small unfinished temple vear the Kiosk, were also excavated Subsequently the Coptic village, which conyers three quarters of the mland, was laid bare, the walls, staxrways, and door» of the dwellings being left, while the streets and interiors of the houses were cleared from the rubbish of the fallen roofs asd walls which encumbered them

Then, in addition to these important works, the Groat Temple of Isis has had ita crypte cleared of the rubbish with which they were choked, and the columns of the east- ern colonnade freed from the débns of, a ruined Coptic village which had formerly buried that portion of the temple All the operations have been most intelli undertaken, and the aim has been to restore rather than to repair, a distinction which antiquarians will appreciate, The director of the excavations took the opportunity of carefully examining the foundation of the temple, when if was found that the foundation masonry, which in one per tion had been carned down to a depth below the high Nile level, was in excellent gondition, and that were no signs of any settlement of the soi. A great pity tion 8f the Temple of Ims 1s, indeed, founded npon Wii

ite rock.

“ Indirectly,*the Upper Nile Reservoir Uhiiog dit in a former chapter, winch was so ae ili’ Av archsologiste, has been the means of x E logical research m Philo: for the Goitdienialt

820 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.

when excavating ın connection with this reservoir project, have cleared up several temples, including one of the Emperor Octavius on the north of the 1slind

At Karnak, also, important work has becn done Al the money raised by the Government tix (levied on visitors to the ancient monuments of the Upper Nile) during last winte: (1896 97) was devoted to the grcit work of clear ing the Karnik temples “Under the superintendence,” to quote agun the Government 1eport, “of M dc Morgan, great progress his been made during the last yen 1n the work of preserving these tuempks A large amount of earth, which filled the giet courtyard and the Hall of Columns, has been removed, the bases of the columns hive boon cleared from contact with the silted curth and rcpured with cement The fallen stones hivc been numbcicd and col lectcd, with a view possibly to thar boing replaced at some future timc ”

In the Ghizeh Pyramid Plit iu we reach a site known, of course, to cvcry tounst Here it meht naturally be supposcd that systcmitic explorations had cxhousted the potential wealth of antiquities Unfortunately, however, this district —of the high st archeological interest — has never been piopcrly woikcd, owing to the Government digging monopoly, and though there 1s a vast amount to be done in the gieat district of the Pyramid and Mcmphis, yet, as Professor Petrie cynically remaiks, “only the in- adequate work of thi Government Department and the plundirmg by natives 15 allowed, and all real scientific work 18 forbidden ”

At the Pyramid of Dahshur, however, at the southefn end of this extensive necropolis, seme excellent work has been dd@e by the new director of the museum, and his thorough and capable researches have resulted ın a most valuable mine of tombs being brought to light The magnificent sets of jewellery found here, now in the Cairo Museum,

RECENT EGYPTOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES. 321

are familiar to every traveller in Egypt. ‘The exquisite delicacy, skill, and taste of this work surpasses all that is yet known. The pectorals arc formed by soldering walls of gold on to a base plate, which is elaborately chased with. details on the back. Between these walla or ribs of or are inserted minutely cut stones,-— cornelian, lazuli, felspar, — to give the vari-coloured design. In this, and in the beads of gold, the astounding minuteness of the work and perfect delicacy of eaecution exceed the limits of mere naked-eye inspection.”

To voume to the latest discoveries, the winter of 1896-7 has ixen marked by some remarksabie finds. The dis- covery of some extraordinary fifth-dynasty tombs at De- shasheh, by Professor Petrie, where a large number of skeletons was found which pomt to a method of burial anterior to the aye of mummies, has already been referred to. In addition to these necrological finds were some objects of great artistic interest, including a remarkably well-executed portrait-statue of a certain royal priest called Neukheftka, the work of some fifth-dynasty sculptor, which shows that even at this early period the Egyptian artists had attained considerable technical skill. Some curious baskets of palm-fibre were also found, evidently used for carrying away the soil from the excavated graves. It is curious that baskets of a similar pattern are still used in India by women labourers for carrying away earth in rail- way cuttings aud other public works.

In the same winter took place the sensational discovery, by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt of the Egypt Exploration Fund, at Oxyrhncus, some one hundred and twenty miles south of Cairo on the edge of the Libyan desert, a few miles from the Nile, of a second-century papyrus con- taining some remarkable sayings attributed to our Lord (Logia Jesou). This document has aroused a con- siderable amount of interest among theological studenta,

822 THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS

and has given rise to many problems Some critics consider that this papyrus ıs a fragment of the well- known, but of course non-canonical, “Gospel acco: ding to the Egyptians ”

A morc satisfactory view, though not fice from difhcul- ties, 1s that this fiagmcnt 139 what it professes to bc, — a collection of some of our Lord’s sayings These, judging from thur archaic tone and framework, weie put together not later than the end of the first or the beginning of the second century, and it 1s quite possible that they cmbody a tradition ind pendent of those which have takcn shape in our Canonical Gospcls

The above 1s, of course, the merest outline of the more noteworthy results undeitaken within recent years in the field of Egyptian exploration The able and suggestive summary of Piolesso: Pctrie, to whom I am much indebted for the information in this superficial sketch, will form a fitting conclusion to this chaptcr

‘The general result of all this activity of recent years 1s that Egypt has appearcd ın far closer relation to other ancient lands Towards the Last an «entirely ncw view 18 opened by the cuneiform letters between Syria ind Igypt for uo one had dreamed that an active correspondence in that writing hid been going on 1m the four- teenth century B © in Syria And the relations shown to exist between the I gyptian Power and the various princes of Syria far exceeded what his been supposed

«But st 18 also to the West that equally unexpected relations have appeared Instead cf looking on Egypt as an isolated factor in the world’s history standing apart from all else, we now realgse that there was much more civilisation outside of 1t than had been sup- posed, and that ıt was in pretty close relation with all the surround- infountries The earhest hght on the South European peoples comes from the Libyan invaders, who conquered Upper Egypt after the sixth dynasty The connection of the prehistoric Cretan cvil- sation has lately been brought to hght, each link of which points to the time of the twelfth dynasty as an age of intercourse The con-

RECENT EGYPTOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES. 828

siderable intercourse with prehistoric Greece ın the eighteenth dynasty 19 now almost «very year more fully cleared up The early historic pettlements of Naukratis and Daphna have opened a new chapter in Grech history and given some of the actual links between Fey ptian and carly (Grech ut And H these et ges were absolutely unknown and ungue ssed as lately a» elt ven years ago, when nc thing from the West was known in kgypt before Ptolemaic times It 18 1 new a world of history as the discoveries of Layard or Schhe- mann, and may well encourage us to hope for what the next ten years may yield to those whowgmploy accurat« research for opening up th buried story ot the life of min”

INDEX.

A

Aah-heten Queen 14

Aahmes founder of the eightecuth dy nasty of Egypt 13, 14, muinim, of 15)

Abbas founder ı f the Abbasside d3 nasty 15i

Abbas, successor to Mehemet Alı 55 245

Abbasside dy nasty, the 150, 151

Abu Simbel, famous rock temple of, 305, 306, 308 four colossi of, 30b, 807

Abusir, pulpit-rock of, 309, excava- tions at, 311

Abydos, traditional burial-place of Osiris, 9, 270 271 tablet of 271 most \ aluable discoveries here car Tied to Cairo, 316

Actium, battle of, between Octasius and Antony, 40 its results 41

Afnica, first complete circumnayiga- tion of tts continent, 2

Ahmed, the tomb-robber 162, 163

Alexander the Great founder of the Ptolemaic empire in Lgypt, 8 subjugates the Persiuus, 2, his Egyptian campaign one of his most Mnking achievements, 22- 24, his death 2

Alexandria, capital of Egypt founded by Alexander the Great, 24, be- sieged by Euergetes II, 38, An-

a a-

tac Nole Delta, 90-104, aspects of, a8 approg bed from the sea, 90, few trices left cf her ancient glory, 91, ignored ht tourists and neglected w aptiquarians, 92, pecuhar Shape «t 93, legend mam. ounting for its site 93 her fine harbour, % modern aspect of created by Meheimnet Ali 45 best view of, 98, 99 can boast of few “ lions,” 100, its Serapeum and library, 101, its Mohammedan cemetery, 102, the cemeteries of Elmeks, 108, a city of sites rather than of sights, 103, its mosques, and convent of Bt Mark 103, 104, best route to Egypt ma, 114-121 its museum, 167

Alphabet, Pha nician origin of, can- not be substantiated, 6, probably originated in Egypt, 6

Amen, worship of, 1b

Amen Em Het, 12, 266, 267, tomb of, at Assonan 300

Amen-hetep, II , III TYV , 15,16

Amru, :onqueror of Egypt, and builder of Old Cairo, 42, mosque named for, at Cairo, 139, 182-184

Antiochus fights battle of Raphia with Ptolemy IV , 34-36

Antony, Mark, his relations with Cleopatra, 39, 40

Apepa II, the Pharaoh who raised Joseph to high rank, 14

tony’s celebration of a Roman | Apis, the sacred bull, cult of, 9, city

triumph at, 33, bombarded by Eng- lish fleet, 57, infection in, 81, and

of, 215-226, mausoleum of, 218, 219; common belief concerning, 2190,

326

220, divine honours paid to, 220, 221, 229

Arabi, Egyptian minister of war rebellion of, 57

“Arabian Nights qucted 53

Art Journal, quoted, 146

Arsinoe, wife of Ptolemy Phuiladel- phus 30 31

Assouan health-resort ın Egypt, 114 115, 250 her quarries the sour e of many Egyptian obelisks, 280, 281, 301, situation of 205 2% great engineering work to be done at 2%, 207, 1ty excellent climate, 297, 298, has a future inviting to the tourist and health-seeker, 299 tombs of, 300 ancient process of quarrying at, 301 sland of Phili at, 301-303 first cataract in the Nile here, 303 how obelisks were transported from 314 315

Auletes (Ptolemy XIII ), his charac ter described by Cicero 39

Ayyubides dynasty the, founded by Saladin, 46, 150, 151

B

Baalber, 231

Baedeker, quoted, 155, 264 265

Baker, Gen Valentine, 77

Balm of Gilead, the, Coptic tradition of, 234

Barrage, the, great dam on the Nile, 71, 242, 244-246

Bebars (Sultan), character and reign of, 50-53

Bell, Moberly, quoted, 66, 164, 165 180

Belzoni, 288, 307

Beni-Hassan, rock-tombs of, 262-267, 315

Bo , port of, 236, 237

Br h Bey, an authority on Egyp- tian history, 9, 163, 228, 229

Bubastis, 12

Burckhardt (Sheik Ibrahim), 154

Byzantine empire, 42

INDEX.

C

Cesar his relations with Cleopatra 39

Casarion reputed son of Cæsar and Cleopatra, 39

Cairo (the ‘ City of the Caliph«”’) one of the dozen most interesting cities of the globe, 1, compara tively modern and _ historically unimportant 1 distinctively an Oriental city 1n 1t4 typical charac- teristics 2 HKuropeanised by Me hemet Ah and Ismail but still a magnific ent field of study, 2, full of picturesque associations connected with the age of the Mameluke Sul tans 2 ignored by most of the books on Egypt, 2 offers richest material for the shetch book, 2 1ts history goes no farther back than meditval times 5 18 wholly a Mohammedan creation 5, 1t8 two periods of history under Arab and Turkish rule 6 improved and fortified by Saladin 42-44 ıts orig- inal name 43 its thiee creators 45 what the Mameluke Sultans did for it 48 scheme for thorough drainagein 81 82 atthe time ofthe Suez Canal inauguration ceremo- nies 113 As a resort for invalids 114-121 malarial in November December and January, 115, ch matic conditions of, 117, 118 In 1ts social aspect 122-131 1ts hotels, 123-12 127 128 an anstocratic winter residence 128 three classes of visitors at, 129 bicycling in, 130 the official functions at, 130, 131 Bazaars and street-life of, 132-138 its two great thorough- fares 132, 133, how to make pur- chases in, 135, 136, all races and nationalities to be seen in, 186, 137 Mosques of, 139-148, more than three hundred in, 140 Tombs of the Caliphs at, 149-156, never properly the seat of the Caliphs,

INDEX.

149, 150 Its National Museum, 157 168, origin, scope, and value sumined up by Murrays Haud

827

Cicero, his estimate of Ptolemy

XIII, 39

City of the C aliphs (see Cairo)

book 15% avast treasure house of | Cieopatra her relations with Crasar

early Leyptian civilisation 159 remarkable paintings, and Hall of Jewels, 100 the Museum of ira- bhian art, 107, 168 The Acropolis of, 169 180 built of stones from the Great Pyramid, 169 most striking landmark of the city 17

view from, 179) Old Cairo and the Copt hurches, 181 190 the Egyp tan Bibylon, 181, 182 arch ter

tural terest and characte mstius of «lrirches desembed, 184 155 Sid h wsof 191 201, most p pu Jar 10> public festivals, 1% na tive wedding, 198 200, degraded position of women 200, 201) Minor excursions from 235 248, rich tield {or artists 235 2 itstrading port of Boulag 2% 237) 1ts royal resi dences, 247, 244 health-resort 249 from, to Thebes on the Nile 261-27h

Caliphs the, rule of in Egypt, 42- 54s different capitals of the, 46 143, 150 the title loosely used, 149, de facto and de jure, 150, 151

wand ‘jtony 4) her flight after the batile of Actium, and her death, &, 41, attempts to escape by acai: between the Red Sea and Mediu) ianean 198, her por- traitın Jicicarthe temple of Den- derah 27> 27s

fommission for the Preservation of

Arabi Monuments the, 141, 178

Constantinople, a hybrid city in

comipauson with Cuiro 5, its chief tumple de licated to a Christian “aunt 5 conquered by the Turks, 4 ıı unference of, 85, mot cosmo- politan «ity in Europe, 136, titular city of the Caliphs, 150, menaced by the troops of Mehemet Ali, 173

Continental, the (hotel), 114, 128,

125

an expensive! Cook, the Messrs, their tourst-

steamers on the Nile, 252, the ad- vantages they offer to the Nile traveller, 256-258, their Handbook quoted JOT

Copts the, and their churches in

Cairo, 186-188

C unbyses, king of Persia, invades | Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, re

and conquers Egypt, 20, 22, ms biutal outrages of Egyptian gods, 23, 107, 181 slaughters the sacred bull, 221, 222

Campbell’s Tomb, 210

Canopus, Decree of 31, 32, 161 Capitulations, the, privileges granted to foreigners in Egy pt, 58, 63 Cemetery of cats, the, 267

Cheops,e10, pyramid of, 22, statis- tics concerning, 204, 205, ascent

of, 206, 207 , rawon d etre of, 209 Chephren, 10, statue of, 159, 160 pyramid of, 207, builder of the Temple of the Sphinx, 214

Chess, ongin of the game of, 223, 224

“Crescent and the Cross,”

fuses to be queen of Egypt, 37

Cotton-plant, the, one of the most

lucrative articles of commerce in Egypt, 234

the, quoted, 288, 289, 302

Cromer, Lord, hus report on Egyptian

drainage, 71, 79, 247, 319 D

Dahabiyeh, the, native sailing-boats

on the Nile, pleasures and expense of, 250, 251, 256-2

Damietta, 94, 108, 106. Davey, Richard, quoted, 142. Denderah, Nile city, Ptolemaic archi-

tecture here, 272-275

328

Dervishes, Howling and Twirling, the, 193-19

Deshasheh, important “finds made here, 321

Dion, his description of Cleopatra’s death, 41

Doyle, Conan, quoted, 305, 309, 310, 811

E

Edfu, temple of, 276

Education in ancient times B Cc , from the Euphrates to the Nile, 269

Edwards, Miss A B, quoted, 15 212, 230 231, 261, 263, 271, 285, 286 294, 295, 306

Egypt cradle of the oldest civilisa tion and culture, 1, of the highest importance to the tourist and sight seer, but of low rank among semi- civilised countiles, 3, national importance of, 4 great highway | between the Eastern and W estern hemispheres, 4, under the Pha- raohs, 5-21, all literature, ancient and modern, indirectly due to her ancient civilisation, 5,6 the cradle | of the alphabet, 6, her ae | fossilised ın monum nts, O, the cardinal fact in her history one of | foreign invasions and conquests, O, T, has preserved ber racial con- tinuity notwithstanding 7 httle known of her prehistoric history, 7, her first earthly kings,7, schol- ars disagree as to the origin of her people, 7,8, the hve principal di- visions of her history, 8,9, dates in her chronology only approxi- mate, 9, 10, her political centre shifted under different kings, 11, 12, her twelfth dynasty an 1mpor-

t period, 12, dark period of, 12,

asi by nomad tribes of Syria, 13; expansion of her national spirit, 14, most popular period af her his , 16, 17, enters on the stage of di¥ruption, 19, a satrapy

4

INDEX.

of the Persian empire, 20, 21, un- der the first Ptolemy (Soter), 21, 24, easily conquered, but perpetu- ally revolting, 22, power of her priesthood, 23, her people welcome Alexander as their deliverer from Persian tyranuy, 23 her history during the three hundred years of Ptolemaic rule difheult to unravel, 32 under Roman rule, 38, under Antony and Cleopatra, 39, 40, un- der Arab rule (the Caliphe), 42-54 picturesque period of her history, 42, her one hundred and forty-four Saracenic rulers 45 her history uninteresting from the Ottoman conquest till the Fiench occupa- tion 54 the making of, 55-89 her leaning towards Westen civili- sation under Mehemet Ali, Said, and Ismail, 55, 5% her finanual embarrassment 5b rebelhon of Arabi 57 England in, 57, 60-67 himpcred by the Gieat Powers, 55-00 66 most important reforms of Kngland in Oel seg dehcate diplomatic relations between the two governments 64, her army disbanded, 65 kind and wise action of English ofhcers, 66, her finances reorganised by England, 67, ber material productiyeness only a question of irmgation, 68, 69 Herodotus s epigram concern- ing, 69 two systems of agriculture in, and why, 69, 70, drainage, 71, 246, 247, proposed reservoir for the upper Nile valley, 72, 319, confi- dence of the people in the English engincers, 73, 74, unsatisfactory condition of the courts of law, 75 et seg, police system, 76, 77, de- partment of the Interior, 77, 78, sanitation and sanitary reform, 78- 82, education and legislation, 82- 84, attitude of England in her pol- 1cy of intervention, 84 ef seg; French her official language, 95,

INDEX.

Engiand’s withdrawal from, con- sidered, 87 et saq , three Egypts to interest the traveller, 94, climatol- ogy of, 116, 117, 119, best way of reaching, 119-121 , her ecclesiastical] property, how vested, 142, fanatı- cism of sects, 145, methods of burial in, 165, lob, under Mehemet Ali, 170 175, the cry of ‘‘ Egypt for the Egyptians ’ impossible of realisa- tion, 175 Christianity established as the state religion of, by Then | dovas 18%) «degraded postition of | woman, 200, 201, pyramids of 202- | 214 animal worship of, 219 221 het most ancient object of worsh p the sun 229° modihed menothe iin ascrifid to her, 230, destined to be the granary of Europe, 242, 243 her climatic conditions unfavourable to textile manufactures, 243 pro- duces three crops annually, 47, as a health-resort, 250, 251, state of education in, in times BC, 269 architecture, Ptolemaic and Pha- raoni(, 272-276 her fifty-five bis- tone obelisks, 280, 281, neglected by the poets, 284, cost of winter- ing in, 290, .ecent discoveries in, 312-323

Egypt Exploration Fund Soriety, its important work, J12 ef seq, should be distinguished from the Egyptolugical department of the Egyptian Government, 312, its work at Beni-Hassan, 315

Hiffel Tower, heig! t of, 204

Elamutes, the, 1°

El-Azhar Univeraity, 32

El-Makrizy, Arab historian, 53 l)

El-Muĝz, tirst of the Fatimite dy- nasty, 43

El-Muizz-Ebek, founder of the Mame- luke dynasty, 49

Emin Bey, legend of his escape from the slaughter of the Mamelukes, 176, 177

England in Egypt, 57, 60-67, most

ee aE A ee A —_— men

829

important reforma of, 63 et seq, delicate diplomatic relations be- tween the two governments, 64, reorganises the Egyptian army, 65,66, moral and educational ser vice of her officers to the Egyptians, 66, rewtablishes Kgyptian finan- tes, 7 mportant work of drain- age, 71) propored groat reservoir in the upper Nile valley, 72, per- fiction of irrigation department, 73 department of Justice and Polue 74 et eg mistakes in the Polo system, 76, 77, department ofthe Internnoi, 74% Public Health de partin nt, 76-82, educational system, and government schools, 82,43 legislative reforios, 83, $4, ber polu y of sntervention conmd- ered, 84 ef seg, her relations with France, 85-87, her hostility to the Suez Canal project, 86, 111-113, her withdrawal must be gradual, 87 et seq, her Public Works de- partment in, her one great apology for being there, 243

Epiphanes (Ptolemy V ), deplorable state of affairs under his rule, 38

Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, in- vades Egypt, 19

Esneh, temple of, 204, 295

Euergetes I , 31

Euergetes II, the ninth Ptolemy, reigns jointly with Philometer, 37, puts to death the infant King Neos, 38, his death, and what ensued, 38-39

F

Fatima, daughter of Mohammed, 46.

Fatimite dynasty, the, origin of, 4; 150

Feliaheen, the, make good soldiers when intelligently led, 65, over- burdened by taxation under Js- mail, 67, their confidence in the English engineers, 73, 74; Sithy condition of their huts, 80; penty-

336

five thousand of, work on the Suez Canal, 112, sliding scale of their taxation, 189, naturally unfitted for manufactures, 243, 244

Fergusson, writer on architecture, quoted, 152, 2b3

Fostat (old Cairo), founded by Amru, 42, 181

Fraas, Professor, quoted, 241

France, partner of England in Egypt, 61, 62, 85-87, encourages Mehemet Ali, 173

Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, 145

G

Gebel Abu Faydah, the Nile Pah sades, 269

Ghawazee dance, the, 191, 192

Ghezireh Palace, the (hotel), 114, 123, 125, 126

Ghizeh, pyramids of, 202-214 pla- teau of, neglected by arch rolo- gists, 320

Gohar, general under El-Muizz, 43

Gorst, J L, 78

Graniille, Lord, memorable des- patch of, 61, 62

Great Powers, the, their relation to the Egyptian question, 87, 58, 1n- tervene between the Porte and Mehemet Alı, 172-175

H

Harris papyrus, the, 287

Hatasu, Queen, 14, 15, her famous expedition to the Land of Punt, 17, 314, obelisk erected by, at Thebes, 279, 280, temple of, at Thebes, 285, 286, 313, 314, 315

Hathor, temple of, 308

Heligpolw, the “city of the sun,” ons. its one curiosity, 227, age

of its famous obelisk, 228, chief

seat of learning during the Middle

Hmpire, 230, mother city of Baal-

dec, 231,

INDEX.

Helouan-les-Bains, oldest health-re- sort in the world, 115, 237, 238, 250

Herodotus, his aphorism concerning Egypt, 69, his account of the build- ing of the pyramids, 205, his story of Rhodope, 210

Hogarth, David, quoted, 6, 32, 33, 92

Homer, his description of Thebes, 277, 278

Hotel d’Angleterre, the, at Caro, 127

Hotel du Nil, the, at Cairo, 128

Hotel Royal, the, at Cairo, 127

Hyksos, the (see Shepherd Kings)

Hy patia, scene of her triumphs and tragédy at Alexandria, 92

I

Isis, Temple of, 29, 302, 319

Ismail (Khediv¢), his hausmannis- ing of Cairo, 2, 113, fall of 9, his passion for European institutions andexalted aims, 66, wrings heavy taxes from the fellaheen, 67, re- fuses to supply labourers to dig the Suez Canal, 112) mania for build- ing palaces, 125, walls up the ‘Needles Eye, 144, gives the Virgin’s tree as a present to his guest, the Empress Eugenie, 233

Issus, one of the most deuisive battles of the world fought at, 20.

J

Johnston, Captain, his engineering feat in saving the coloss1 of the Abu Sibel temple, 307

Joseph (Jewish patriarch), 14, his well, 178, 179

Josephus, quoted, 234

K

Ka-mes, 14

Karnak, the Great Temple of, 15, 204, tablet of, 271, 278-280, impor- tant archeological work done af, 320

Kerouan (the ‘“‘ Holy City ’’), 43.

INDEX.

Khalhg Canal, the, féte of, 189, 190.

Khu-en-Aten (alias Ame.:-hetep), lo, 268, record ofhce of, 268, 469, temple of, 318

Kinglake, quoted, 213

L

Lesseps, M de, 108-113

Lloyd, Clifford, 77

Lusor, 15, 114, 115, 930, ocenpies part of the site of angent The bes 217 temple of, 280, cost of Leaving wi 200 292, has @ great future be- fore as a health-resurt 92 29;

compared with Assouan and í arto, | Memphis

a 4

Lyons Colonel, 32, 311, 319

M

Macgregor, John, quoted, 107

Mahaffy, Professor, quoted, 36, 40, 100, 273, 274

Mamelnukes, the, 47-52, meaning of the name, 47, the true founder of their dynasty, 49, length of their reign, 51, 151, great mosque-build- ers, 146, tombs of, 154, rmvals of Mehemet Alı, 170-172

Manetho, historian of Egypt, 29, 239, 231, 238

Marco Polo, 50, 52

Mariette Bey, 107, 218, 219, 222, 223, 220 (Note), 316

Mark, Saint, his bones not in Alex- andria, but ın Venice, 103, 104

Maspero, Professer, discoverer of the pyramıd-tomb of L nas, 10, 163

Mastabas, the, meaning of the word, 224 , Gescribed, 225, 226

Matarieh, village of, 232-234

Mehemet Ali, rebuilds and Europe- anises Cairo, 2, invents system of perennial irrigation for Egypt, 70, looks to France for aid in his at- tempt to civilise Egypt, 85, creator of modem Alexandra, 9%, his

381

romantic career, end resemblance to Napoleon, 96, 169-175; great blot of his reign, 87, 172, 176, 177; eques- trian statue of, at Alexandria, 97, his rivalship with the Mamelukes, 170-172 conflict with the Porte, 172-174, Jares not withstand “the lucky : een,” 174 greatest ruler of Hgsp sieca the Ptolemiea, 175; miospueel, 177 failed to appreciate the agncnultural importance of the Nile, 2+’, began the Barrage, 244, 246, disgraceful \ andalism in time of 274

Mechk-es Salsh, 49

capital of Egypt under Menos, and chief centre ot the wor- siup of the god Ptah, 9, tirst histor- ual capital of Egypt, 11, impor- tance of, as capital of the Ancient Empire, 215, compared with Thebes, 210, 1ts statues of Ram- eses II, 216, 217, necropolis at, 217

Mena House, the (hotel), 115, 116, 12%, 127, 250.

Menes, first really historical king of Egypt, 9

Menzaleh, Lake, 109, 112

Mer-en-Ptah (Seti IIL), the Pharaoh under whose reign the Exodus of the Israelites took place, 18, 162.

Milnes, Sir Alfred, 73

Moeris, an artificial lake, 12, 30, 71

Mokattam Hills, the, 169, 241

Moncrieff, Sir Colin Scott, 72, 244, 245, 246

Montbard, quoted, 236, 237.

Morgan, M. de, quoten, 320.

Moses, at Heliopolis, 230; his well, 241

Mosques, unsanitary condition af, 80, of Cairo described, 130-14, 152-154. ,

Murray’s Handbock, quoted, 143,258, 162, 189, 190, 209, 216, 239, 265, 986, 275, 310.

Mycerinos, 10, 210.

882

N

Napier, Admiral, his interview with Mehemet Ali, 173, 174

Napaleon, compared witb Mehemet Aft, 96, his scheme for a marıtıme sanal through the Isthmus of Suez, 108, curious coincidence ıoncern- ing, 170

Naukratis, an ancient Greek settle- ment in Egypt, discoveries at, 316, 317

Naville, M , quoted, 313, 314 315

Necho, one of the Pharaonic kings of Egypt 20

New Hotel, the, a* Cairo, 126

Nile, the, 1ts antiquities of surpass- ing interest, 3 the one and only highway of Egypt,o Herodotus s epigram concerning, 69 the be- neficent providence of Egypt, 189 its annual increment to the soil of the Delta, 227, 225 worshipped as the creative principle of Egypt, 243, as a health resort, 249 200) 1ts dahabiyehs, 250 251, 255-257 anı- mal life and scenery of, 252, 253 its wonderful sunset afterglow, 254, 255 rare sightseeing on 257 hints to sportsmen on, 254, 200 from Cairo to Thebes on, 261 276 first cataract of, 303 from the first to the second cataract of, 304-311, second cataract of, 310

Nilometer, the, 12, 158, 189

Nitokris, Queen 10

Nubia, geographical features of, 304, 305

O

Octavius, his chief casus belh: with Antony, 39, temple of, discovered, 320

O Caliph, 42, his advice to his

viceroy, 68, destioys the Serapeum

collection, 101, 102

Osiris, his reputed burial-place at Abydos, 9, legendary phoenix sacred to, 231, temple of, 302

INDEX.

Ostrich Farm, the, 242

Othman, first leader of the Ottoman Turks, 54

Oxyrhncus, Logza Jesou found here, 321, 322

P

Paine, J A ,quoted, 289

Palmerston, Lord, oppores the Suez Canal project, 111

Pelusiuin (Sin of the O T ), 107

Pentaur, poet laureate of the Theban court 18, 271, 272

Persians, the, subjugated by Alexan- der the Great 20 their sway in F gy pt cruel and bloody, 22

Petrie Llinders quoted, 9 165, 166, 203 204 203, 23, 209, 317, 318, 320, 322 123

Petric papyrus, the 31

Petritied Forest, the 240-242

Pharaohs Lgypt under the, 5-21, their twcnty-sıx dynasties, 8 the name Pharaoh convertible with that of Rameses, 10 their reign covered four thousand years of Egyptian history 21 mummies of, 102-105

Pharos the at Alexandria, 29

Philadelphus (second Ptolemy), his coronation ceiemony described,

26 orders the Septuagint trans-

lation of the O T, 25 builds the famous Pharos 29 establishes the port of Berenice, 25, 29

Phila, island of, 301-303

Philometer (Ptolemy VII), sketch of his hfe by Poly bius, 37, 38

Phoenix, the, 231, 232

Photographers, etc, warned, 97, 98

Pithom, famous treasure-city built by the Israelites for Rameses the Great, 317

Plato, a student at Helropolis, 230

Phoy, quoted, 31

Plutarch, quoted, 37

Pollard, Mr , quoted, 155, 156.

in Egypt,

INDEX. 883

Polybius, his description of the bat-| Pyramids, the, theories concerning, tle of Raphia, 34-36, sketches life; 202-204, Dean Stanley on, 208

of Philometer, 37, 38 Pythagoras, a student at Heliopolis, Pompey, 107 | 203 Pompey’s Pillar, at Alexandria, 100, i

101 R

Poole, Stanley Lane quoted, 2, 1- | Rae, Fraser, quoted, 164 5O, 141, 144, 151 168, 186 187 197 | Ram 4 1 mel, 211

198, 201, 228 Rameses} leant important sovereign Port Said, 94, 105 106, 107, 120 of tte t haraohs 17, cut the first Posidippus, epigram of 29 ‘anal between the Red Sea and the Prissé papyrus the oldest tT ch in Bile I?

the world, 6, 1b6 167 rvamerxen JIT founder of the twelfth Psaaminetichus, founda the t veuty | Tharaonic dynasty, 18, last of the

s ath Pharaonic dynasty 1) 20 warrior kings of Egypt, 19, temple Ph creator of guds and men 4% ot al I ebes 286, 287 It wana empire the, fallif i2 Rame yes the Great (II ), 11, the dom-

Ptolenues the empire of forndcd inant personality in the history of by Alexander the Great 8 2) 22 kgypt 17 his greatest achieve- 41 their comparatively pcuceful mentin arms, 18 built the oldest rule in Fgypt 23 24 their rule; road in the world, 107, colossal of Igypt during three hundred} statues of at Memphis, 216, 217, years characterised i2etseq cnd, temple of at Abydos, 270, 271, of their dynasty, 42 some hindof| colossal statue of, at Thebes, 283, water communication in time of | built the temple of Abu Simbel, bctw een the Red Sea and Mediter 306, 305 ranean, 108 where the architec Ramesseum, the, 281, 283, 308 ture of their age may be studied, Ramleh 115 272 «ruins of their temples and Raphia battle of, described by Poly- monuments at Phila 301, 302 | bius 34-b)

Ptolemy J\ (Philopater), earıy Rogers Pacha, proposed sanitary re events of his reign summarised forms of, 79-81 33-% , a patron of literature, and Rosetta, 94, 105 builds a temple in Honour of Rvusetta Stone, 161, 231 Homer, 36

Ptolemy VI, what followed his 8 death, 38 Said Pacha, beneficial results of his

Ptolemy Soter founder of the dv-) reign, 55, grants right of way to nasty of the Ptolcmies, 21,24, his| the Suez Canal, 110, 111

museum and library at Alexan is Peter's, Rome, height of dome, dra? 24-26 204

Pulpit Rock of Abusir, 309, 810 Sais, 12 Pyramid-builders, the great, 10 Sakkarah, tablet and cemetery of, Pyramid of Dabshur, sets of ancient} 217-219 jewelry found here, 320, 321 Saladin, improves and fortifies Pyramid of Medum, built by Sene-| Cairo, 42, 43; his characters and feru, 9 deeds, 46, 47, 150, 151, 176, 179.

Pyramid of Unas, 222, 223 Salisbury, Lord, his åespatah to the

884 INDEX.

English envoy to the Porte, 62,

63 Sandwith, Dr F M , quoted 117

Tel-El-Amarna, city of Lower Egypt 11,16 rock-tombs of, 268 fame of as a field for research, 318

Saracenic era, the, of Lgypt, 8 42,'Tewfik, placed on the throne of

art fostered by, 48 49, 51 Scott, Sir John, 75, 7 Sequenen Ra, 13 164, 165 Serapeum the, 218 219 222

Seti I temple of at Abydos, 271,

272 his tomb 2388

Bet: IIL (see Mex en Ptah)

Shashank (Shishak of the O T) founder of the twenty-second Pha raonic dynasty 19

Shelley, quoted 283, 284

Shepheards, the (hotel), 114, 123 144

Shepherd Kings the, 11, 13, 161

Sinai, inscriptions on the cliffs at,

9 Sneferu, temple of, 317 Solar Disk, temple of the, 16 Solon, a student at Heliopolis, 230 Sphinx, the, 211 213 temple of, 214 Stanley, Dean, quoted, 208, 212, 283 Step Pyramid, the, 222

Strabo, quoted, 31, 271, 288, 2%

(Note) Suez Canal, story of, 105-113 em

phatically the work of one man, 108 not preeminently a monument of engineering skill, 109, 1ts genius loc, 109 main difficulties in the way of its construction political, 110, opposition to, of the British government, 111, change from manual to mechanical labour in digging, 112, splendour and cost of the inauguration ceremonies of, 112, 113

Syria, nomad tribes of, invade Egypt, 13.

T

Tanis (Zoan of the O T), at one time capital of Egypt, 11, ruins of, 107

Taylor, Isaac, quoted, 279.

Egypt by the Porte, 57 more nearly a constitutional ruler than any other Egyptian sovereign, 155 ceremonies attending his funeral described 155 156 Helouan his fav ourite resideuce, and where he dicd 237

Thebes capital of Egypt under the Middle Fmpire 11, 15 adm:rable site of 277 for more than two thousand years the capital and ecclesiastical seat of Egvpt, 278 279 ruins and antiquities of 275 289 view of from one of the sur rounding mountain peaks, 242

This, earhest histone cty of Egypt supposed birthplace of Menes 9 270 cradle of the first Egyptian kings, 11

ThotmesI II III, 14 15

Tombs of the Kings the, 287-289

Traill, H D, quoted, 99, 187, 138, 162, 177, 196 254 255

Trojan War the, its date in connec- tion with Egyptian history, 19

Tunis, seat of the Fatimite dynasty, 46

Turin papyrus, the, 167, 217, 227

Turkey her protectorship of Egypt considered, 88

Turks Ottoman, the, 42 beginning of their empire, 53 distinguished from the Saracens and Arabs 54 date of their invasion of Egypt, 150

Turra, quarries of, 238-240

U Unas, his pyramid-tomb, 10 Usertsen I and II, reigns of, 13

y

Vandalism, European and Ameri- can, of Egyptian and other antiqui- ties, 274, 281, 316.

INDEX.

Verdi, composes the opera “‘ Aida’”’ for the Khedive Ismail at the inau- guration ceremonies of the Suez Canal, 113

Vincent Sir Edgar, financial adviser tothe Khedive 68

Virgin’s Tree, the, legend of 232, 203

Virgin’s Well, the, legend of 234, 2⁄4

Vocal Memnon, the, 284, 285

w

Wady Halfa, fortifed post of, 308, pu! n rock at, 309, 310 Wakfu Administration,

the ws | Zovn (*ee Tanis)

385

charge of all Egyptian mosques, 141, 142 Wallis-Budge, E A , quoted 14, 15, (Note), 100, 161, 167, 262, 271 Warburton, Ehot, quoted, 170, 171, 307

Washington Monument, the, height of, 24

Wolseley Lord, subdues the rebel-

hon uf Arabı in Egypt, 57

W ud Sir Eveiyn, reorgauises the

Egvptiau army, 65

Z